Payments for ecosystem services as an essential approach to improving ecosystem services: A review

There remain considerable controversies over payments for ecosystem services (PES) as an essential approach to improving ecosystem services. This study reviewed various definitions of PES and explored its economic nature; then explored previous methods for estimating the PES standard and finally proposed possible agendas for future PES research. Results suggested the PES and traditional land rent both originate from the monopoly of the providers on use rights of land vital to provision of certain ecosystem services, therefore PES should be redefined as a special kind of land rent for sharing land use rights of the providers to guarantee sustainable provision of certain ecosystem services. Besides, there has been no universal methods for estimating the rational PES standard due to insufficient understanding of the economic cause and nature of the PES. Re-imagining and re-designing PES as a system of land rights is advantageous to clearing up misunderstanding and disputes over the economic cause and nature of PES and overcoming limitations of existing methods for estimating the PES standard. Additionally, it is necessary to further improve the PES schemes based on cost-efficiency and explore the methods for estimating the PES standard based on the land rent theory and interdisciplinary knowledge.