Payment for environmental services (PES) has been applied in parts of the world since the 1980s, and could help to address growing concerns about climate change, biodiversity loss and water supply, suggested The State of Food and Agriculture, a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) report released on 15 November.
Applying PES in Africa could be critical in mitigating some of the impact of climate change, said Keith Wiebe, chief of FAO's Comparative Agriculture Development Service and one of the main contributors to the report.