Skip to content

How to pay for ecosystem services

Published Article

United States

Publication date: October 12, 2023

File format: url

View resource

This study presents a practical framework for identifying viable financing mechanisms for conservation projects, helping practitioners understand how to fund ecosystem services, evaluate financing pathways, and eliminate infeasible options. Case studies include forests, coral reefs, oyster restoration, and island biosecurity.

Subject Tags

  • Policy, Finance, and Markets
  • Nature-based solutions

Abstract

New investments in conservation are needed to halt and reverse the rapid and extensive changes to ecosystems driven by growing human demands for natural resources. A major barrier is matching viable financing solutions to conservation projects. Recent conservation finance studies catalog available financing options but do not provide adequate guidance on which financing pathways are suitable for a particular conservation project. Studies in the natural capital literature identify activities that best serve the conservator's objectives but typically fail to address the question of how to pay for them. We attempt to bridge these literature sources by providing a framework for identifying the specific conditions that must be satisfied by a project in order for an existing financing mechanism to be viable. Notably, our framework quickly reveals financing approaches that can be eliminated. We demonstrate the utility of this approach through conservation case studies on establishment of native forests, coral reef restoration, oyster restoration, and island biosecurity.

Citation

Plantinga, A. J., Millage, K., O'Reilly, E., Bieri, T., Holmes, N., Wilson, J., & Bradley, D. (2024). How to pay for ecosystem services. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 22(1), e2680.

TNC Authors