Payments for Ecosystems Services to Support Transitions to Sustainable Agriculture and Land Use

This brief focuses on Payments for Ecosystems or Environmental Services (PES) as a

mechanism for providing incentives to land users to transition to more sustainable land

management.

Agriculture and food systems are both drivers and victims of escalating climate and nature crises, in turn increasing the risks to healthy diets, livelihoods and economies. Public policies can set incentives for farming and market practices that further exacerbate these trends, but they can also play a role in reversing them. The global Agriculture Policy Dialogue on Transition to Sustainable Agriculture is a peer-to-peer platform to share experience, facilitate partnerships and catalyse policy leadership to accelerate the transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems that benefit people, prosperity and the planet.

Policy Pathway Briefs provide an overview of emerging experiences and lessons on policy approaches that contribute to this transition, covering a series of topics requested by Policy Dialogue members, to support peer leaning and knowledge exchange. The briefing notes are in no way exhaustive. The options facing governments will be context specific and look different across and within countries. The notes aim to act as a discussion starter and to facilitate exchanges between countries engaged in the Agriculture Policy Dialogue and with other global initiatives, drawing on the experiences presented by members and examples identified through further research.