Optimising payment for environmental services schemes by integrating strategies: The case of the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes is a popular tool to address the problem of environmental degradation. However, these projects do not always produce their best outputs due to the inefficiencies of sustainable development policies. Although some sources of inefficiencies cannot be controlled, the implementation of PES systems following the integrated approach (more than one project acting on the same site) is expected to increase their benefits and offer solutions to some of their problems. Moreover, this integration should provide an optimal combination of both short and long-term ecosystem services, ensuring resilience to environmental and social change. This study analyses nine combinations of PES schemes and a Rural Development (RD) project in three regions of Rio de Janeiro – Brazil. The focus is to analyse how different schemes can promote a continuous and long-term provision of the ecosystem services targeted by each project, as well to assess how the schemes, in general, can contribute to increasing the socio-ecological resilience of the benefitted area. Desk research and field interviews were conducted to obtain the necessary information to analyse the costs and benefits of the schemes. The data collected has provided us with qualitative information to illustrate the theory behind the project, and people's lived experiences. These outcomes and other socio-economic and environmental parameters were analysed through a Multicriteria Decision Analysis. The paper shows the integrated approaches have offered the best trade-off among the costs and benefits in all regions. At the same time, they have a high potential to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem services in that area while acting towards a resilient community/environment.