Forests and Water: Valuation and payment for forest ecosystem services
This guide assesses enabling environments for payment for forest ecosystem services schemes at different levels. It suggests best practices in integrating payments for ecosystem services in existing legislation. It also identifies factors for success in the design of payment for ecosystem services schemes, such as working in partnership and delivering multiple services from a single ecosystem.
Organisation: UNECE and FAO
Payment for ecosystem services, Getting Started: A Primer
The primer defines a four-step approach to setting up a payment for ecosystem services scheme, based on assessing ecosystem services and buyers, assessing institutional and technical capacity, structuring payment for ecosystem services agreements, and implementing the agreements.
Forest Trends, the Katoomba Group and UNEP
Learning from 20 years of Payment for Ecosystem Services in Costa Rica
This guide outlines lessons learnt from a long-term payment for ecosystem services scheme in Costa Rica. It outlines recommendations for setting up similar schemes, including using simple indicators, considering differentiated payment levels and collecting data for continuous evaluation.
Organisation: IIED
Financing sustainable forest management
This brief identifies and describes different possible mechanisms for financing forest management, including payments for environmental services, indirect investment products and forest funds. It focuses on Latin America.
Organisation: FAO
Finance for Forests Initiative
Several factsheets on financing for forests, including forest bonds and REDD+.
Organisation: Conservation International
Guide to conservation finance
A review of different methods of financing conservation, including of forests. Methods include carbon markets, carbon taxes, payments for ecosystem services, revenue from tourism and recreation, compensation payments, environmental investment funds and others.
Organisation: WWF