Changing environment and development institutions to enable payments for ecosystem services: The role of institutional work

•We explore how PES emerges in countries without PES laws that mandate participation.•Excess capacity for PES within some pre-existing formal institutions does exist.•Attempting to change devolved or sectoral institutions is most advocated.•Informal norms can act as barriers when attempting to change formal institutions.•Contributes to the environmental governance literature on institutional work.