Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are financial incentives provided to rural communities on the condition that they modify their agricultural practices to limit their ecological impact and...Show morePayments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are financial incentives provided to rural communities on the condition that they modify their agricultural practices to limit their ecological impact and supply environmental goods purchased by a group of beneficiaries. In Ecuador, PES schemes have continued to be implemented in the paramo highlands from the early 2000s to the present as part of a global, neoliberal wave in environmental governance, which has fostered the idea that economic valuation is the key for addressing environmental externalities. While PES have been conceptualised as instruments for inclusive development because monetary transfers can positively impact poverty alleviation, their control by more powerful investors calls for a consideration of the extent to which their governance arrangements truly enable benefits to be distributed fairly between services providers and consumers. Therefore, adopting a political ecology theoretical lense, this paper will analyse how the implementation of PES schemes as tools for addressing environmental externalities has impacted social relations and the governance of natural resources in the Ecuadorian highlands from the early 2000s to the present. Focusing on two PES programs from Ecuador, FONAG and Socio Bosque, it will argue that power asymmetries between rural communities and service buyers have enabled the latter to increasingly gain control over resource governance. By analysing their impact on ownership regimes, neoliberal conceptualisations on environmental management, and social relations at the community level, the paper will conclude that PES schemes reproduce the political, cultural and socio-economic divide between urban and rural centres. As such, it will contribute to the academic literature by highlighting the mechanisms through which these programs reinforce rural communities’ marginalised position in Ecuadorian society.Show less
