| DATE | 19-23 July 2021 |
| VENUE | Virtual |
| ORGANIZERS | AFoCO RETC |
| NO. OF TRAINEES (COUNTRIES) | 60 trainees (14 countries) |
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) is a type of market-based incentive system offered to farmers or landowners in exchange for managing their land to provide some ecological services for society or end-users. PES is considered and implemented as part of nature-based solutions under the Sendai Resilience Framework, contributing to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation with socio-economic benefits in an integrated manner. Under the “UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030” declared by the UN General Assembly in 2019, the value of the PES remains as a new financial instrument. At the 25th Session of the FAO Committee of Forestry in 2020, PES was emphasized as one of the innovative financing modalities for forest conservation, restoration, and sustainable use, to address deforestation. This call to action recognizes the need to speed up the restoration of degraded ecosystems in order to combat the global warming issue, improve food security, provide clean water, and conserve the planet’s biodiversity.
As a successive opportunity from the 2014 AFoCO PES workshop “How PES serves Livelihood of Forest Community in the Southeast Asia Region,” the course aims to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of PES for practical strategies in planning and encouraging projects/programs for PES in the forests and forestry sector. The training also fulfilled knowledge and shared experiences in exploring financial instruments to set the PES schemes in member countries.
The workshop aimed to:
- provide the comprehensive understanding of PES for practical strategies in planning and projects/programs;
- explore risks and challenges for the progress of PES; and
- find practical and sustainable solutions by sharing cases and experiences of the Asian region.
A total of eight (8) sessions were provided by the trainers and various experts from international organizations, universities, research institutes, and government agencies. In addition, four (4) PES practices of the member countries were introduced, which covered the current trends and cross-cutting practices reflecting general concepts and methodologies.
