Résumé
Payment for environmental services is intended to ensure better management of natural resources while contributing to economic development and ecosystem protection. This policy instrument is based on economic incentives to offset the opportunity costs of environmental service providers. Hence, it links providers and users of environmental services and acts as a powerful catalyst for collective action. In this chapter, we discuss the economic principles underlying the instrument and its modes of governance, and we present some innovative examples. We show that by maintaining ecosystems and associated ecosystem services, the practices favoured by these payments contribute directly and indirectly to climate change adaptation or mitigation policies.