Applying the ecosystem services concept to poverty alleviation: the need to disaggregate human well-being

SUMMARY The concept of ecosystem services (ES), the benefits humans derive from ecosystems, is increasingly applied to environmental conservation, human well-being and poverty alleviation, and to inform the development of interventions. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) implicitly recognize the unequal distribution of the costs and benefits of maintaining ES, through monetary compensation from ‘winners’ to ‘losers’. Some research into PES has examined how such schemes affect poverty, while other literature addresses trade-offs between different ES. However, much evolving ES literature adopts an aggregated perspective of humans and their well-being, which can disregard critical issues for poverty…

• SR
  Sight Research UK

  Awards: ESPA010001, NE/I00324X/1
• EA
  Economic and Social Research Council

  Award: ES/F041357/1
• NE
  Natural Environment Research Council

  Awards: NE/I00324X/1, ESPA010001