Payments for environmental services (PES) can be defined as: voluntary transactions whereby a defined environmental service (or a land-use likely to secure that service) is bought by a buyer from a provider, on the condition that the provider secures provision of the service (Wunder 2008).
PES is a type of economic instrument that provides incentives to land owners to supply environmental services, which benefit society more broadly.
PES projects can potentially serve the dual goals of preserving critical ecosystem services and the biodiversity upon which they depend, while also contributing to poverty reduction (UNEP and IUCN n.d.).