Special Issue "Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) and Other Collaborative Measures for Forests: What Kind of Innovations Are Possible?"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Shingo Shibata
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Global Environmental Studies, Sophia University, Tokyo, 102-8554, Japan
Interests: environmental resource management, economics and policy planning
Prof. Dr. Takuya Takahashi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environmental Science, University of Shiga Prefecture, Hikone, Japan
Interests: forest policy/planning; corporate environmentalism

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forest payment for ecosystem services (forest PES) is a clear and straightforward answer to the question of the externality of forest ecosystem services. Water storage, purifying services, carbon sequestration and storage services, as well as recreational opportunities are often provided for free by forest managers or owners to general citizens or certain groups of individuals, resulting in the insufficient supply of these services. If these unpaid services are provided based on the exchange principle, that is, ecosystem services for monetary or other rewards, the services would be delivered at optimal levels. However, past experiences have taught us that it is not that simple. PES is difficult to implement because of several obstacles such as high transaction costs and unclear owner rights. Furthermore, critics claim that forest PES is ethically as well as politically questionable. In this Special Issue, we welcome contributions to innovations for overcoming these and other obstacles and criticisms. We recognize that forest PES is not a magic bullet for solving issues related to the externality of forest ecosystem services. However, it may provide unique opportunities for enhancing forest ecosystem services under certain conditions. Collaborative measures for improving the multifunctionality of forests, other than forest PES, include community forestry, forest certification and action research amongst others. We welcome contributions to the following:

  • Multiple case studies of innovative forest PES implementations or other collaborative measures;
  • Analyses of diffusion of forest PES or other collaborative measures;
  • Analyses of practitioner–research collaboration on forest PES implementation or other collaborative measures;
  • Reflections about the potential for overcoming obstacles and criticisms related to forest PES and other collaborative measures;
  • Other contributions to the aforementioned objective

Prof. Dr. Shingo Shibata
Prof. Dr. Takuya Takahashi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • collaboration
  • PES (payment for ecosystem services)
  • forest certification
  • community forestry
  • stakeholders
  • externality
  • public goods
  • model forest
  • green purchasing
  • green procurement

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Corporate Payments for Ecosystem Services in Theory and Practice: Links to Economics, Business, and Sustainability
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8307; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158307 - 26 Jul 2021
Viewed by 382
Abstract
Few Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes are financed voluntarily by corporations. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that limited literature on the theory and practice of PES has a dedicated focus on businesses. This article unifies the PES and business literatures in order [...] Read more.
Few Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes are financed voluntarily by corporations. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that limited literature on the theory and practice of PES has a dedicated focus on businesses. This article unifies the PES and business literatures in order to address the awareness and management challenges that corporations face in engaging in PES. First, it shows how corporations fit into the economic theory that underpins PES, demonstrating that corporate-financed PES schemes can exhibit a diversity and hybridity of Coasean and Pigouvian characteristics. Second, it shows how PES fits into corporate sustainability theory, demonstrating how PES can help companies achieve synergies across the economic, environmental, and social tenets of the triple bottom line; for example, by helping gain social license to operate from adjacent communities, or by using PES to meet sustainability reporting requirements related to emissions and water management. Third, it shows the different PES options available to firms based on their industrial sector, operating practices, and business strategies. The options with higher potential are maintenance and enhancement of production inputs across the supply chain, and carbon offsetting and insetting to help meet climate change mitigation regulations and avoid fines. Fourth, it identifies lessons learned when transitioning from theory to practice by synthesising the latest empirical research on corporate-financed PES schemes—considering exactly what these ‘should’ or ‘could’ resemble, for example, in terms of their additionality, conditionality, permanence, co-benefits, budgeting, and bargaining. Examples are drawn from corporate-financed schemes in forests and watersheds across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. The article concludes that these schemes remain small in number and size, but have significant potential to increase—and this can be aided by future research on corporate motives, understandings, and actions on PES. Full article
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