Payments for environmental services and rural livelihood strategies in Ecuador and Guatemala

Presented in this paper are the results of two contingent valuation analyses, one undertaken in Ecuador and the other in Guatemala, of potential payments for environmental services (PES) directed toward rural households. We find that minimum compensation demanded by these households is far from uniform, depending in particular on individual strategies for raising incomes and dealing with risks. Our findings strengthen the case for allowing conservation payments to vary among recipients, which would be a departure from the current norm for PES initiatives in Latin America.