Building a Methodology for the Design of an Environmental Services Payment Programme for the Mangroves of Mexico

Abstract

Environmental Services Payment Programmes are not entirely new and they are more flexible than the usual command-and-control type of regulation. In the 1990s for example, an Environmental Services Payment programme was introduced to cope with the forestry system and pay benefits to farmers for the good that their forests would produce. This review examines the possibility of using Environmental Services Payment programmes for Mexican mangroves as they are an important resource against natural disasters, and reducing greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, for example, and they are constantly invaded by the human race which impacts on their destruction. The review aims at constructing a methodology that can be applied to the implementation of Environmental Services Payment programmes. The value of this study is in aiming a straight arrow at the environmental problems outlined in this paper, problems that have not been fully resolved to date, especially in Mexico where it is not officially recognised that mangroves play an important role in the mitigation of greenhouse gases. Furthermore, Environmental Services Payment Programmes in Mexico have not pinpointed specific types of area. We conclude this paper with elaborating on our ten-point strategy for implementing Environmental Services Payment programmes which includes, in brief: 1) Fully accepting the importance of the mitigation of greenhouse gases via mangroves; 2) designing a Environmental/Ecosystem Services Payment Programme with particular emphasis on Mexican mangroves; 3) identifying specific environmental services and their level from local to international; 4) formation and implementation of a system of “whoever benefits must pay”; 5) building of a knowledge base of owners and others who benefit from environmental services; 6) hypothetical models of particular Environmental Services Payment programmes must be constructed ; 7 ) clarifying who must pay; 8) grouping all sectors that must pay; 9) inspiring all actors to cooperate via 10) the impact of a Citizens’ Council, for example.