Governance of global natural resources is increasingly hybrid, with complementary public and private sector initiatives layered on landscapes to improve environmental outcomes. The challenge of polycentric land use governance is alignment of goals across diverse governance mechanisms when agricultural producers, public agencies, and corporations have distinct motivations. This case study of soil carbon governance on California rangelands explores a new payment for ecosystem services (PES) initiative led by the food and agriculture industry, called the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC). Applying hybrid governance theory to agricultural lands, we conduct an ex-ante policy evaluation of potential policy impact based on (i) alignment between corporate sustainability goals and ranchers’ priorities and (ii) complementarity of the ESMC market with existing public and private policies enabling rangeland conservation. We found corporations developing the PES market to be motivated by carbon insetting, the objectives of which converge with ranchers’ goals of preserving soils. Each policy offers distinct benefits and challenges, with synergies around climate change adaptation and soil health. As a new policy tool, carbon markets like the ESMC are positioned to meet demand for soil health financing, support resilience and ranch productivity, and improve ranchers’ access to soil health data for adaptive management. Given carbon markets’ outcome-based payment structure, we highlight the importance of complementary governance mechanisms that mitigate upfront risk with financial and technical support during the transition period, including Farm Bill cost-share programs and private sector financing tools. This policy evaluation highlights the challenges and opportunities surrounding rangelands soil carbon governance, particularly the trade-offs that ranchers, corporations, and society at large must consider for landscape-scale conservation programs.

中文翻译：

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混合治理模型中的生态系统服务付款：评估加利福尼亚牧场的政策一致性和互补性

全球自然资源的治理日益混杂，公共和私营部门的互补性举措位于景观之上，以改善环境成果。当农业生产者，公共机构和公司有不同的动机时，多中心土地利用治理的挑战是使目标在各种治理机制中保持一致。这项针对加利福尼亚牧场的土壤碳治理的案例研究探索了由粮食和农业行业主导的生态系统服务（PES）新支付计划，称为生态系统服务市场联盟（ESMC）。将混合治理理论应用于农业用地，我们基于（i）公司可持续发展目标与牧场主的优先事项之间的一致性，以及（ii）ESMC市场与现有公共和私人政策之间的互补性（可实现牧场保护），对潜在政策影响进行事前政策评估。我们发现，开发PES市场的公司受到碳注入的推动，碳注入的目标与牧场主的保护土壤目标相吻合。每项政策都带来了独特的利益和挑战，并在适应气候变化和土壤健康方面发挥了协同作用。作为一种新的政策工具，ESMC等碳市场的定位是满足对土壤健康筹资的需求，支持抵御能力和牧场生产力，并改善牧场主对土壤健康数据进行适应性管理的途径。鉴于碳市场基于结果的支付结构，我们强调了补充治理机制的重要性，这些机制可以在过渡期间通过财政和技术支持减轻前期风险，包括《农业法案》成本分担计划和私营部门融资工具。这项政策评估突出了牧场土壤碳治理所面临的挑战和机遇，尤其是牧场主，公司和整个社会在进行景观规模保护计划时必须考虑的权衡取舍。