Local views and structural determinants of poverty alleviation through payments for environmental services: Bolivian insights

Payments for environmental services (PES) are very often considered emblematic of the neoliberal trend in natural resources and ecosystem management. Even if they have been largely criticized as contributing to the commodification of nature, their worldwide application is obvious. The explanation of their diffusion in poor countries and regions can be partially attributed to the fact that PES are promoted as a “win–win” solution, capable of improving sustainable management of natural resources as well as reducing poverty. Inscribed in a liberal conception of poverty, most of the investigations on PES concentrate on the question of access of the poor to PES schemes—as well as to wider markets—on redistribution of benefits and on poor people’s income increase. Studying a Bolivian PES, we show that broadening the foregoing conceptualization of poverty to a more relational understanding allows better taking into account local views and structural determinants of poverty and therefore allows better reporting of the complexity of poverty alleviation implications of such natural resource management initiatives. It is a first and necessary step in designing PES that could increase both natural resource conservation and social justice in marginalized areas.