LIFE ProForPES

PES schemes are considered a promising economic instrument for diversifying the income of forest owners and rural communities while supporting biodiversity and climate change mitigation. However, the benefits of providing ecosystem services are rarely rewarded, and PES schemes are often limited to small-scale, pilot-stage initiatives.

Building on the experience of key forest PES projects (SINCERE, InnoForESt and NOBEL), LIFE ProForPES aimed to collect, synthesise and integrate the existing knowledge and know-how on PES and PES-like schemes at national and EU level. The strengths and weaknesses of selected cases were assessed using a framework developed specifically for the project. The project also explored the readiness and potential for integrating PES and PES-like schemes into EU financial programmes and the state aid framework, through an in-depth institutional analysis of the gaps and opportunities in both frameworks.

This analysis of current EU policy and financial programmes, combined with a robust consultation process with key stakeholders, provided the knowledge needed to design policy and business recommendations for integrating PES and PES-like schemes. These recommendations aim to support the sustainable provision of forest ecosystem services in Europe and help achieve key targets of the EU Biodiversity Strategy. The project brought together a strong EU-wide partnership, including the European Forest Institute as an EU research network, three universities with specific expertise on the topic, and PES implementers such as Etifor. It was also supported by institutions and organisations such as the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, FSC Italy, CEPF and EUSTAFOR.

EFI’s role was to provide an overview of existing PES and PES-like instruments in European forestry, identify what works in which contexts and, most importantly, co-design policy recommendations for implementing PES schemes at different levels.