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The main objective of this work is to provide an introduction and sense of direction (i.e. a “Gateway”) into the complicated world of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). It by no means intends to serve as a comprehensive overview of this vast field. It provides one entry point for engaging in PES, and was designed to fit into the broader Livelihoods and Landscapes (LLS) strategy, as developed by IUCN’s Forest Conservation Programme.

Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) integrates the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services into an overall strategy to help people adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change. It includes the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of ecosystems to provide services that help people adapt to both current climate variability, and climate change1. Ecosystem-based Adaptation contributes to reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience to both climate and non-climate risks and provides multiple benefi ts to society and the environment.

The spread of marine species beyond their native environment is of increasing concern due to rapid growth in commercial shipping and recreational boating, activities that can help organisms ‘hitchhike’. Marine invasive species are currently recognized as one of the major direct causes of biodiversity loss and changes in ecosystem provisioning and supporting services.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has shown that despite their importance to human well-being and biodiversity, the world’s freshwater ecosystems as well as water-related ecosystem services are rapidly being degraded. In order to stop this development and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular the MDG 7 to ‘ensure environmental sustainability’, governments and international processes are searching for the most effective way to govern water-related ecosystem services. In this context, two approaches exist: the traditional strategy of command and control, and the use of economic or market-based instruments

As environmental problems continue to increase at an ever more rapid rate, exacerbated by the major threat of global climate change, the need for widespread remedial action is becoming ever more pressing. Scientific consensus on both the root causes of these problems and the measures required to tackle them is growing, while mass media and public interest has reached fever pitch. Of course, while this has put pressure on decisionmakers to take positive action, the realisation of the gravity and extent of the environmental problems has encouraged all those concerned about the state of our world to search for partners around it: one such significant partnership to e­merge in recent years is between those concerned with the conservation of nature –and of its biodiversity– and the custodians of sacred sites, representing both indigenous beliefs and mainstream faiths.

Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms, including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants, and embraces all kinds of aquaculture (inland and marine, and capture based or not). Farming implies some sort of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding and protection from predators. Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated.

We would like to acknowledge the following programmes that contributed to the development of the protocol through their general work and supporting workshops and fieldwork: the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), The Nature Conservancy, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Coral Reef Targeted Research Programme for Management, World Wildlife Fund – US and Tanzania Programme Office, Living Oceans Foundation, Island Conservation Society, D’Arros Research Station, Seychelles Island Foundation, CORDIO and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.

In November 2007 and November 2008, we conducted a bird and mammal survey on Wallis and Futuna. We found two non-native bird species on Wallis: the Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis) and the Chestnut-breasted Munia (Lonchura castaneothorax), and one on Futuna: the Jungle Myna (Acridotheres fuscus). We also recorded Black Rats (Rattus rattus) on Futuna, a recent introduction to this island. The introduction of 3 bird species and Black Rats in the last decade denotes a lack of preventive measures and demonstrates that the issue of invasive species has not received sufficient priority.

Since recession shocked the global economy in 2008, the meaning of ‘sustainability’ has taken on a new depth. Besides the long-running fear of environmental destruction – in particular in the ‘susceptible drylands’1 – and rising expectations of a ‘tipping point’ in climate change, a new question arises in the short run. Will ‘business as usual’ resume, with appropriate lessons learnt,2 or will the system fracture? Can consumption continue to exceed sensible restraint, or can a new order emerge in the relations between humankind and the global ecosystem?3 There are strong linkages between these questions. An additional question urgently needs answering: what will become of the Millennium Development Goals for the relief of poverty, injustice and inequity in the distribution of nature’s benefits?