Elsevier

Anthropocene

Volume 31, September 2020, 100255
Anthropocene

Understanding direct and indirect effects of Payment for Ecosystem Services on resource use and wildlife

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2020.100255Get rights and content
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open access

Abstract

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs have been implemented worldwide to balance human needs and ecosystem conservation. However, the effects of PES programs on economic activities and the associated effects on wildlife remain unclear. China’s Grain-to-Green program (GTGP) that aims to convert cropland to forest or grassland represents one of the largest PES programs in the world. We combine household surveys with wildlife camera data to ask whether GTGP is associated with direct or indirect effects on economic activities, wildlife occupancy and wildlife species richness. We also consider how resource use and extraction, wildlife occupancy, and species richness differ between GTGP and natural forest sites. We found that farming and the amount of fuelwood extracted from forests have declined, while the collection of other forest resources remained largely unchanged. While residents engaged less in cattle grazing after GTGP implementation, goat grazing and pig forage collection remained unchanged. Paired camera trap and household survey data analyses suggest that presence of humans and dogs was positively related to resource collection, and negatively related to wildlife occupancy, which likely contributed to the lower wildlife species richness detected at GTGP forest relative to natural forest. The results suggest that while PES programs, like GTGP, may reduce some human impacts on forest ecosystems (i.e. reduced firewood collection and cattle grazing) and provide habitat for wildlife through afforestation, the persistence of other types of resource use may limit the positive benefits of PES to wildlife diversity. Our results suggest there may be opportunities for PES programs to extend the multi-benefit approach of balancing human needs and ecosystem services to increase potential benefits to wildlife and biodiversity.

Keywords

Grain-to-Green program
Human activity
Guizhou
Coupled human and natural system
Multi-species hierarchical occupancy models
Forest management

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