Step 4. Augmenting Nature's Income Stream: Payment for environmental services

When the poor engage in good ecosystem stewardship, they create the conditions for higher productivity and greater direct environmental income for themselves. But they also safeguard ecosystem services whose benefits extend beyond their immediate surroundings. By maintaining a healthy forest cover, for example, they are helping to preserve watershed services like flood control, continuous water supply, and erosion control that landowners downstream will benefit from. In the past, these services have been considered