This book addresses the ability of market-based instruments to improve the sustainable provision of environmental services. The author combines field research and insights from the multi-stakeholder dialogue at the FAO to analyze the gap between the predictions provided by theory and the corresponding outcomes in practice. In particular, the author challenges the theory behind Payments for Environmental Services (PES), a concept derived from neoclassical welfare economics, by demonstrating that PES projects often lack financial sustainability unless local entrepreneurs make use of the resulting new networks to create innovative markets for environmental goods. The author calls for a shift of focus from regulation to innovation in projects and policies designed to improve the provision of environmental services. Its spotlight on the positive social impacts of companies that engage in hybrid PES schemes will make the book appealing to practitioners and policymakers alike.

Philipp Aerni is Director of the Center for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CCRS) at the University of Zürich in Switzerland. He graduated originally in Geography and Economics at the University of Zurich and received his PhD from the Institute of Agricultural Economics at ETH Zurich. Subsequently he continued his postdoctoral research at Harvard University, ETH Zurich and the University of Bern. From May 2012 to September 2013 he was coordinator of a Swiss-funded project on the sustainable provision of environmental services at the Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO of the United Nations in Rome. His research interests are in the areas of corporate responsibility, science education, sustainable development, environment politics and the history of science and technology.