9 November 2026A new article by Julie Subervie (INRAE, CEE-M), Gabriela Demarchi (CIRAD, MoISA), Philippe Delacote (INRAE, BETA) and Thibault Catry (IRD, UMR Espace-Dev) has just been published in The Conversation. It provides an overview of their research findings, recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
Protecting tropical forests is essential to combating climate change and biodiversity loss. This is one of the objectives of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which requires companies to demonstrate that certain products placed on the European market are not sourced from recently deforested land.
However, deforestation is not solely driven by large export-oriented companies. It is also linked to small-scale farming: in many regions, smallholder farmers clear land for cultivation or livestock grazing in order to meet their basic needs. Coercive measures, such as fines or land-use restrictions, can prove unsuitable and risk further undermining the livelihoods of already vulnerable communities.
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programmes offer a complementary approach: rather than penalizing forest owners who clear their land, they reward those who commit to preserving their forests, compensating them for part of the income they forgo.
But what types of contracts make these schemes truly effective?