Qualifying Exam
Department of Biological Sciences,
National University of Singapore
“Payments for ecosystem services and their impacts on social equity”
Francesca Louise Mcgrath
Graduate Student
Supervisor: Asst Prof Carrasco T L Roman
Wed 26 Aug 2015: 11.00 am
Conference Room-II (S1-03 Mezzanine)
All are welcome
Abstract: Payments for Ecosystem (or Environmental) Services (PES) schemes, a form of market-based conservation, are an established method of using incentives to compensate individuals for the provision of goods and services provided through conservation of the environment. Internationally, many PES schemes are being implemented as a way of conserving ecosystems at a variety of spatial/temporal scales across a breadth of developed and developing nations. PES schemes have been proposed as a win-win situation where environmental conservation can be coupled with poverty alleviation to produce positive outcomes for both of these factions. More recent PES scheme research has focused on the concept of equity within these schemes, building on existing literature on environmental justice. Ignoring equity within a PES scheme can lead to unintended negative impacts on the actors within the scheme which can undermine the schemes environmental objectives.
The aim of this PhD is to explore the mechanisms (social, spatial, institutional, etc) influencing equity outcomes to better inform PES scheme design and implementation. My first chapter is a meta-analysis looking into the factors associated with equity in PES schemes. Specifically analyzing scheme characteristics found in the case studies against the factors of equity. Chapter two is an analysis into PES scheme participants’ perception of fairness and how this can produce social disruptions within a community, using a case study from Sumberjaya, Indonesia. Chapter 3 will incorporate distributive equity into a land-use change agent-based model, by creating different inequitable payment scenarios. Chapter 4 will then be an application of this model to a PES scheme site in Lantapan, Philippines to see how these different inequitable payment scenarios can influence community behavior and the subsequent impacts on land-use change.”
The Biodiversity Crew @ NUS 