ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the various ways in which Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes have been classified. It presents a theoretical-conceptual framework for analyzing processes, relationships and institutional environments related to PES mechanisms and discusses various PES pilot projects in Vietnam and Indonesia in the light of the framework. PES hold the promise of being more effective in halting environmental degradation in ecologically fragile areas than conventional command-and-control approaches that have largely failed in fostering resource conservation, particularly in the context of Southeast Asia. Natural resource governance in Thailand has mostly followed a command-and-control approach from the second half of the twentieth century onwards. Most PES schemes in Thailand have been tested at the pilot project and small catchment level because a comprehensive legal framework at the national level is still lacking and government officials remain reluctant to devolve decision-making power over forest conservation and use to local communities.
