ABSTRACT
Introduction Programmes of payments for environmental services (PES)1 are becoming an increasingly popular way of creating, conserving and restoring natural resources throughout the world. Mayrand and Paquin (2004) inventoried more than 300 such schemes. In recent years, PES programmes have increasingly been implemented in developing countries, with one of the earliest efforts occurring in Costa Rica in 1997 and pilot programmes mushrooming throughout Latin America and Asia (World Bank, 2005). Payments for the conservation of standing forests are among the most numerous of such programmes.
