Paying for Biodiversity Conservation Services in Agricultural Landscapes

This paper describes the contract
mechanism developed for the Regional Integrated
Silvopastoral Ecosystem Management Project, which is being
implemented with financing from the Global Environment
Facility (GEF). The project is testing the use of the
payment-for-service mechanism to encourage the adoption of
silvopastoral practices in three countries of Central and
South America: Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. The
project has created a mechanism that pays land users for the
global environmental services they are generating, so that
the additional income stream makes the proposed practices
privately profitable.