Successfully implemented payment for ecosystem services (PES) programs can provide both conservation of nature and financial support to rural communities. In this paper, we explore how PES programs can be designed so as to maximize the amount of additional ecosystem services provided for a given budget. We also provide a brief summary of the use of auction mechanisms in real world PES programs.

Little is known about the cost of environmental regulations that target households instead of firms, partly because of significant methodological and data challenges. We use the contingent valuation method to measure the costs of Mexico City’s Day without Driving program, which seeks to stem pollution and traffic congestion by prohibiting vehicles from being driven one day each week. To our knowledge, ours is the first study to focus directly on using stated preference methods to isolate and estimate the private costs of an existing environmental regulation.

The EfD in Central America is an integral part of the thematic Research Program in Economics and Environment for Development (EEfD) of the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE, by its Spanish acronym)1. EEfD fosters the encouragement of environmental and economic conditions in the Central American region by improving policy design and increasing the impact of research activities through their alignment with national and regional policy needs.

Environmental loss: the cost to Tanzania’s economy

by Salvatory Macha

Much of Tanzania’s economic growth is dependent on the natural ecosystems that allow the harvesting of resources such as water, timber, and fish from the environment. However, society often regards these resources as infinite and free, which can lead to their overexploitation, resulting in the ecosystems becoming degraded and unhealthy. The ripple effect can be felt through the entire economy.

This research aims to find the determinants of participation on social organizations in Chile through a social capital approach, as well as to evaluate the existence of a positive effect between participation and household welfare. In the case of economic and local organizations several regressions for participation and income were run.

Produciendo por Mi Futuro (PxMF) is a poverty-reduction intervention, implemented in Colombia
by Prosperidad Social, which is based on the graduation programs initially developed by the BRAC
Development  Institute  of  Bangladesh  and  later by  the  Ford  Foundation  in  eight  countries  
around  the  world.  Like  other  graduation  programs,  PxMF  seeks  the  integral  support  of  the