Research overview: payments for ecosystem services and predator conservation

This overview reviews how payments-for-ecosystem-services (PES) frameworks have been adapted to compensate communities for hosting large carnivores, treating predator presence as a service worth rewarding. It synthesises models linking payments to conservation performance, biodiversity outcomes, or tourism value, and contrasts them with damage-based compensation. The literature examines design issues, additionality, leakage, monitoring, equity, and long-term financing, and case experience from snow leopard, lion, and jaguar landscapes. The survey frames PES as part of a broader shift toward valuing predators positively rather than only offsetting their costs, while cautioning that sustainable funding and credible measurement remain persistent obstacles to scaling these market-inspired conservation incentives.