A system of performance-based rewards was at the heart of the REDD+ idea when it got underway in 2006. REDD+ intended to improve on outmoded approaches to stopping tropical deforestation by compensating stakeholders who forego forest conversion and demonstrate in a measurable way (through MRV) that they have fulfilled conservation targets. Thus REDD+ is at least in principle one example of payments for ecosystem services (PES) and can therefore benefit from the science of PES.
In researching REDD+ subnational initiatives, Module 2 has paid close attention to the possibilities offered by conditional reward systems, and also to the reasons these systems have been so challenging to put in place. Wunder and Börner (2012) explore (among other topics) why forest-based PES predominates over agricultural PES in developing countries. Börner et al. (2011) conduct a survey of a range of forest carbon payments in Latin America, from pilot schemes to large-scale implementation. Armas et al. (2009) assess the viability of PES for forest conservation in the Peruvian Amazon.
