Moral limits of payments for ecosystem services

This paper reviews and analyzes the concept of payments for ecosystem services (PES) and focusing on their moral limits. PES is a part of recently introduced market instruments to address problems of pollution and environmental degradation. It is expected that hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of conservation investment will be transferred globally through PES like mechanisms. Using the framework of moral limits of markets, this paper highlights ethical concerns regarding this expansion of PES. A particular concern is the corruption that happens when cash transfers spoil the intrinsic motivations among many indigenous communities to engage in environmental conservation. Drawing on field research and empirical data from projects in Mozambique, and Tanzania, the paper identifies insights for policy makers, researchers, concluding with a discussion on directions for future research in this area.