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Private PES schemes do not require a specific legal framework beyond basic contract law, but they are usually limited to local water problems. However, scaling their positive results up through a nested approach may require a specific policy and legal framework. PES trading schemes require a specific legal framework as they are rather complex and usually need to be established at the regional or national scale. An appropriate legislative framework which regulates public PES schemes has the potential to stimulate the development of trustworthy markets and to ensure good governance.

viiiBiodiversity within inland water ecosystems in western Africa is both highly diverse and of great regional importance to livelihoods and economies. However, western Africa is currently undergoing huge levels of development, with a population which is projected to double by 2050 to over 600 million people. Development activities are not always compatible with the conservation of this diversity and it is poorly represented within the development planning process. One of the main reasons cited for inadequate representation of biodiversity is a lack of readily available information on the status and distribution of inland water taxa.

The nations of CARICOM16 in the Caribbean together with Pacific island countries contribute less than 1% to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (approx. 0.33%17 and 0.03%18 respectively), yet these countries are expected to be among the earliest and most impacted by climate change in the coming decades and are least able to adapt to climate change impacts. These nations’ relative isolation, small land masses, their concentrations of population and infrastructure in coastal areas, limited economic base and dependency on natural resources, combined with limited financial, technical and institutional capacity all exacerbates their vulnerability to extreme events and climate change impacts. Stabilising global GHG emissions and obtaining greater support for adaptation strategies are fundamental priorities for the Caribbean Basin and Pacific island countries. CARICOM leaders recently unveiled their collective position that global warming should be held to no more than 1.5°C19 and continue to develop a Climate Change Strategic Plan. The Pacific island countries have expressed their priorities for addressing climate change regionally through the Pacific Leaders’ Call to Action on Climate Change20 and the Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change 2006-2015.21

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.

The burning of fossil fuels is generating levels of what one might term ‘brown’ and ‘black’ carbon in the atmosphere and unless checked may take global temperatures above a threshold of 2 ̊C. Dramatic reductions are possible by accelerating energy efficiency measures and boosting the deployment of cleaner energy generation and renewables such as solar, wind and geothermal. Over the past few years science has been illuminating other sources of emissions and other opportunities for action. Deforestation for example now accounts for close to 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions

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 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

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) provides a globally significant demonstration of the effectiveness of large-scale networks of marine reserves in contributing to integrated, adaptive management. Comprehensive review of available evidence shows major, rapid benefits of no-take areas for targeted fish and sharks, in both reef and non reef habitats, with potential benefits for fisheries as well as biodiversity conservation. Large, mobile species like sharks benefit less than smaller, site-attached fish. Critically, reserves also appear to benefit overall ecosystem health and resilience: outbreaks of coral-eating, crown-of-thorns starfish appear less frequent on no-take reefs, which consequently have higher abundance of coral, the very foundation of reef ecosystems. Effective marine reserves require regular review of compliance:fish abundances in no-entry zones suggest that even no-take zones may be significantly depleted due to poaching.

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.