Gains achieved by conservation interventions such as payments for environmental services (PES) may be lost upon termination of the program, a problem known as permanence. However, there have been few efforts to evaluate the permanence of conservation results. This article examines the permanence of land-use changes induced by a short-term PES program implemented between 2003 and 2008 in Matiguás-Río Blanco, Nicaragua. Under this program, PES had induced substantial adoption of silvopastoral practices. To assess the long-term permanence of these changes, participants were resurveyed in 2012, 4 years after the last payment was made. We find that the land-use changes that had been induced by PES were broadly sustained in intervening years, with minor differences across specific practices and subgroups of participants. The patterns of change in the period after the PES program were completed to help us understand the reasons for the program’s success and rule out alternative explanations for the program’s success. Our results suggest that, at least in the case of productive land uses such as silvopastoral practices, PES programs can be effective at encouraging land owners to adopt environmentally beneficial practices and that the benefits will persist after payments cease.

中文翻译：

---

评估环境服务支付引起的土地利用变化的持久性：来自尼加拉瓜的证据

在项目终止后，保护干预措施（例如环境服务费用 (PES)）可能会失去收益，这个问题被称为永久性问题。然而，很少有人努力评估保护结果的持久性。本文研究了 2003 年至 2008 年在尼加拉瓜马蒂瓜斯-里奥布兰科实施的短期 PES 计划引起的土地利用变化的持久性。根据该计划，PES 已促使大量采用林牧实践。为了评估这些变化的长期持久性，参与者在最后一次付款 4 年后的 2012 年接受了重新调查。我们发现由 PES 引起的土地利用变化在干预年份中大致持续，在特定实践和参与者亚组之间存在细微差异。PES 计划完成后期间的变化模式有助于我们了解该计划成功的原因并排除该计划成功的其他解释。我们的结果表明，至少在林牧等生产性土地利用的情况下，PES 计划可以有效地鼓励土地所有者采用有益于环境的做法，并且在停止付款后收益将持续存在。