Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Services Provision: A Tale of Confused Objectives, Mulitple Market Failures and Policy Challenges

Abstract

Most research and funding in conservation has been oriented toward biodiversity per se. Until recently there has been little tangible effort in linking conservation to ecosystem service provision. Nevertheless, this trend seems to be changing due in part to the relative success of payment mechanisms that provide funding for the conservation of ecosystem services – defined as discrete and identifiable end-products. This paper describes the features of optimal policies to protect (i) biodiversity vs. (ii) ecosystem services and analyze to what extent the criteria in (i) and (ii) set against each other or create synergies. We also analyze how payments for ecosystem services affect the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation.