Governing the Provision of Ecosystem Services

Founded on the core notion that we have reached a turning point in the governance, and thus the conservation, of ecosystems and the environment, this edited volume features more than 20 original chapters, each informed by the paradigm shift in the sector over the last decade. Where once the emphasis was on strategies for conservation, enacted through instruments of control such as planning and ‘polluter pays’ legislation, more recent developments have shown a shift towards incentive-based arrangements aimed at those responsible for providing the environmental services enabled by such ecosystems. Encouraging shared responsibility for watershed management, developed in Costa Rica, is a prime example, and the various interests involved in its instauration in Java are one of the subjects examined here.

 

Other topics including the interplay between property rights and bioprospecting (a live issue in places where but a small proportion of the insect and plant life has been identified). Other issues explored include the management of marine protected areas, and the controversial issue of payment for ecosystem services. Offering a comprehensive and worldwide perspective on the burgeoning research being devoted to the topic, the authors show how former divisions and dichotomies between state and market, regulation and incentive, or conservation and development, are being broken down by a growing and urgent sense that solutions must be decentralized, more flexible, and more on polycentric institutional arrangements.