Silver bullet or fools’ gold? A global review of markets for forest environmental services and their impact on the pooron

Market-oriented approaches to environmental management are increasingly common in all sectors of the economy. Forestry is no exception. As forestry sectors around the world open their doors to growing private sector participation, governments have been increasingly attracted to market-based instruments as a new set of tools for guiding private investment. Of the many instruments available to policy-makers, by far the most ambitious to date is the development of markets for forest environmental services, such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, watershed protection and landscape values. Markets are thought to offer an efficient mechanism for promoting and financing forest protection and sustainable forest management.