The ESPA Framework: A socio-ecological systems analysis of the political economy of Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation.

The ESPA Framework is designed to help the world's poor to improve their lives through the benefits they can derive from ecosystem services. We know from previous studies, that many vital Ecosystem Services (ES) are taken for granted and degraded. People responsible for making decisions and forming policy tend to ignore the value of ecosystem services for the world's poor. As a result, the costs and benefits of the use and management of ecosystems are not shared equitably, with the poor capturing few benefits whilst being most vulnerable to environmental degradation. ESPA's Political Economy theme seeks to implement high quality research to provide the evidence and tools required to ensure that knowledge about ES are integrated into more equitable policy and decision making. In order to deliver this we need to develop ways to influence human behaviour and so to ensure that the poor can capture benefits from ES and where necessary to establish more effective institutions and markets. These are the challenges that the ESPA Framework project will address. The concept of active management of ecosystems for poverty alleviation is in its infancy. Traditional approaches to assessing the role of people in ecosystems have focused on economics (mostly neo-classical) as the foundation for decision making processes. We propose that a shift is required away from purely economic based approaches towards a new paradigm that describe complex socio-ecological systems that account for traditions, culture, non-monetary goals and a host of other factors that underlying human behaviour. This way of looking at ecosystem services for poverty alleviation also recognises that the role of the individual is strongly influenced by the institutional and political context within which people operate. The project will highlight the factors and interrelationships that influence human well-being and then progress to build a conceptual framework that can be applied by future ESPA projects. This work will be grounded both in theory (of complex socio-ecological systems) and in practical reality through a series of case studies in three of the ESPA regions (Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Amazonia). The project brings together leading experts from the UK and the ESPA regions to form a truly interdisciplinary team. Regional projects will conduct systematic reviews of evidence linking ES and poverty alleviation. The earlier ESPA regional Situation Analyses will be used as a starting point for this process. The regional teams will identify local stakeholders (including communities, government and the private sector) who will work with the project to assess the relevance of the framework within their local contexts. Forest ecosystems will be used to evaluate and development the framework within each region. The project will facilitate a process of South-South learning benefiting from the very high level of expertise and experience that the developing country partners will contribute. This will lead to the production of a comparative analysis of the political economy of ecosystem services for poverty alleviation, based on a review of the current literature. This will help to inform the development of the framework, as well as providing an extremely valuable resource for other projects, policy makers and practitioners. The opportunity to bring together the developing country partners will contribute to build the international ESPA community of practice, further enhancing the opportunities for researchers from the global south to participate in the wider ESPA programme. The development of this approach at the start of the main ESPA programme will help kick-start a range of activities across ESPA's themes and regions. Our framework will be made available to all ESPA projects.