title: Effects of payments for ecosystem services on wildlife habitat recovery.
abstract: Conflicts between local people's livelihoods and conservation have led to many unsuccessful conservation efforts and have stimulated debates on policies that might simultaneously promote sustainable management of protected areas and improve the living conditions of local people. Many government-sponsored payments-for-ecosystem-services (PES) schemes have been implemented around the world. However, few empirical assessments of their effectiveness have been conducted, and even fewer assessments have directly measured their effects on ecosystem services. We conducted an empirical and spatially explicit assessment of the conservation effectiveness of one of the world's largest PES programs through the use of a long-term empirical data set, a satellite-based habitat model, and spatial autoregressive analyses on direct measures of change in an ecosystem service (i.e., the provision of wildlife species habitat). Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) habitat improved in Wolong Nature Reserve of China after the implementation of the Natural Forest Conservation Program. The improvement was more pronounced in areas monitored by local residents than those monitored by the local government, but only when a higher payment was provided. Our results suggest that the effectiveness of a PES program depends on who receives the payment and on whether the payment provides sufficient incentives. As engagement of local residents has not been incorporated in many conservation strategies elsewhere in China or around the world, our results also suggest that using an incentive-based strategy as a complement to command-and-control, community- and norm-based strategies may help achieve greater conservation effectiveness and provide a potential solution for the park versus people conflict.
authors.affiliation: Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, U.S.A.|Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Mao-Ning
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Tuanmu
authors.affiliation: Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Viña
authors.affiliation: Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, U.S.A.|Conservation International, Arlington, VA, 22202, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Wu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Ashton M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Shortridge
authors.affiliation: Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Jianguo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D002681:China; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005382:Financing, Personal; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D001503:Ursidae
keywords: Natural Forest Conservation Program; Programa de Conservación de Bosques Naturales; Reserva Natural Wolong; Wolong Nature Reserve; conflicto parque-habitantes; dinámicas espacio-temporales; forest monitoring; giant panda; habitat recovery; monitoreo de bosques; panda gigante; park-people conflict; recuperación de hábitat; spatiotemporal dynamics