The economic importance of the dryland ecosystem services in the Kgalagadi area is generally unknown, as is the distribution of benefits from use of the ecosystem services. This study seeks to value ecosystem services in the Kgalagadi area by applying the choice experiment technique and then assessing the potential for ecosystem services to contribute to the Khomani San livelihoods through a payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme.

This study seeks to value ecosystem services in the Kgalagadi area in South Africa by applying the choice experiment technique. The values placed on dryland ecosystem services by indigenous communities are estimated using a conditional logit model, a random parameter logit model and a random parameter logit model with interactions.

The results show that local communities would prefer increased grazing, firewood collection, hunting opportunities, and harvesting of medicinal plants.
 

The chapter is a case study of tenure security and ecosystem service provisioning in Kenya. It provides support to a strong positive link between tenure security and investment in soil and water conservation. Evidence from 18 villages in rural Kenya suggests that household income tends to increase as a result of land conservation investments. This is particularly the case when land is registered in the name of the household head rather than another member of the extended family.

We offer a nationwide analysis of the initial years of Costa Rica’s PSA program, which pioneered environmental-services payments and inspired similar initiatives. Our estimates of this program’s impact on deforestation, between 1997 and 2000, range from zero to one-fifth of 1% per year (i.e., deforestation is avoided on, at most, 2 out of every 1,000 enrolled hectares). The main explanation for such a low impact is an already low national deforestation rate. We also consider the effect of enrollment.