TY - JOUR
T1 - Contradictory distributive principles and land tenure govern benefit-sharing of payments for ecosystem services (PES) in Chiapas, Mexico
AU - Izquierdo-Tort, Santiago
AU - Corbera, Esteve
AU - Martin, Adrian
AU - Lillo, Julia Carabias
AU - Dupras, Jérôme
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd
PY - 2022/5/1
Y1 - 2022/5/1
N2 - Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are incentive-based instruments that provide conditional economic incentives for natural resources management. Research has shown that when economic incentives are parachuted into rural communities, participation and benefits are collectively negotiated and shared. However, we know little about how benefit-sharing evolves over time in community-based PES. To address this gap, we examine distributional justice in four communities of the state of Chiapas, Mexico, which participate in a PES programme, and we assess how local justice principles compare with the programme’s goals. Our analysis reveals patterns of both continuity and change in how communities share PES benefits, which reflect a suite of contradictory justice principles, including entitlement, merit, need, and equality. The studied communities distribute PES benefits by providing differentiated compensation to diverse groups of landholders via private cash payments, whilst also attending non-landed community members through public infrastructure investments. We show that benefit-sharing is strongly influenced by pre-existing land tenure features and associated norms, which in the study area include three different types of individual and common-property. Yet, we also show that communities continuously adjust benefit-sharing arrangements to navigate distributional challenges emerging from programme engagement. Overall, we provide novel insights on the evolution, diversity, and complexity of distributive justice in community-based PES and we advocate for a context-sensitive, nuanced, and dynamic account of justice in incentive-based conservation.
AB - Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are incentive-based instruments that provide conditional economic incentives for natural resources management. Research has shown that when economic incentives are parachuted into rural communities, participation and benefits are collectively negotiated and shared. However, we know little about how benefit-sharing evolves over time in community-based PES. To address this gap, we examine distributional justice in four communities of the state of Chiapas, Mexico, which participate in a PES programme, and we assess how local justice principles compare with the programme’s goals. Our analysis reveals patterns of both continuity and change in how communities share PES benefits, which reflect a suite of contradictory justice principles, including entitlement, merit, need, and equality. The studied communities distribute PES benefits by providing differentiated compensation to diverse groups of landholders via private cash payments, whilst also attending non-landed community members through public infrastructure investments. We show that benefit-sharing is strongly influenced by pre-existing land tenure features and associated norms, which in the study area include three different types of individual and common-property. Yet, we also show that communities continuously adjust benefit-sharing arrangements to navigate distributional challenges emerging from programme engagement. Overall, we provide novel insights on the evolution, diversity, and complexity of distributive justice in community-based PES and we advocate for a context-sensitive, nuanced, and dynamic account of justice in incentive-based conservation.
KW - distributive fairness
KW - distributive justice
KW - environmental justice
KW - incentive-based conservation
KW - Lacandon rainforest
KW - payments for environmental services
KW - social equity
KW - distributive fairness
KW - distributive justice
KW - environmental justice
KW - incentive-based conservation
KW - Lacandon rainforest
KW - payments for environmental services
KW - social equity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131137983&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/29a60cad-f472-3e04-b402-a0e8171042d2/
UR - https://portalrecerca.uab.cat/en/publications/338dccd4-4e2b-439e-b9e2-69951dd8ada9
U2 - 10.1088/1748-9326/ac6686
DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/ac6686
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85131137983
VL - 17
JO - Environmental Research Letters
JF - Environmental Research Letters
SN - 1748-9326
IS - 5
M1 - 055009
ER -