The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity study (TEEB) and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) provide a comprehensive and useful framework to understand human dependence on ecosystem services and how best to protect these services in perpetuity. In these three authoritative studies, payment for ecosystem services (PES) is listed as one of the mechanisms that should allow societies to pay for the maintenance of these services. Ecosystem services are receiving increased attention in the context of human development through The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study (TEEB). This is an international initiative designed to call attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, and the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. In TEEBs Report for Policymakers, PES schemes are listed as potentially useful mechanisms to compensate those who maintain the flow of ecosystem services. The study emphasizes that PES schemes offer considerable potential to raise new funds for biodiversity or to use existing funding more efficiently, and that both the public and private sectors can play a role in establishing PES in different contexts.
