Incentives for Ecosystem Services (IES) in the Himalayas: A ‘Cookbook’ for Emerging IES Practitioners in the Region

This Cookbook is designed to help people interested in Incentives for Ecosystem Services (IES). It is designed to allow the reader to rapidly gain familiarity with the entire process of establishing a functioning, sustainable and efficient IES system in the Himalayan context. This Cookbook should be of interest to those who have heard of definitions such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), Incentives for Ecosystem Services (IES) or Incentive-based mechanisms for ecosystem services (IBM), or who have encountered one of their cases in practice, and who perhaps wish to set up an IES scheme themselves. This Cookbook clarifies the ‘ingredients’ needed to design an IES system, in order to increase familiarity with terms and cases. It is our intention that this Cookbook serve as a catalyst for learning, knowledge exchange and the building of a community of practice, and ultimately as a tool to make advances where IES offers unrealized potential across the Himalayas. In addition, by highlighting the unique conditions and experiences of IES cases within the Himalayas, we believe that it is possible to mobilize the broader international community to support Himalayan experts and innovators in their task of producing sustainable benefits for the billions whose futures are at stake.

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Incentives for Ecosystem Services (IES) in the Himalayas