“Co-design the future(s) of Payments for Ecosystem Services in the EU”
On 5 May 2025, the online workshop “Co-design the future(s) of Payments for Ecosystem Services in the EU” was held, with over 60 participants. It provided an opportunity to work on four different scenarios for Europe, in which Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) may take various forms.
In 12 separate breakout rooms, we discussed specific questions aimed at fine-tuning the key components of PES. We express our sincere thanks to all workshop participants: your views and the discussions that emerged were of great significance and have provided valuable guidance.
Workshop material
Four scenarios for Europe in the year 2050 were developed, building on a set of socio-ecological storylines created within the EU FP7 project OpenNESS. These scenarios describe alternative futures for Europe based on different policy choices, societal values, and environmental drivers, and were designed to explore how ecosystem services and natural capital might evolve under varying contexts. The OpenNESS scenarios have been slightly adapted to the requirements of the ProForPES research objectives.
In each scenario, one specific PES setting was elaborated by the project team, with distinct characteristics in terms of the stakeholders involved, funding sources, application intensity, conditionality related to payments, contract duration, and monitoring arrangements.
The scenarios and PES settings provided the framework and impetus to discuss cross-cutting issues in PES, helping understand how best to integrate them into policies and the financial framework.
The following provides links to the materials used and to the topics debated during the sessions.
Workshop outcomes
The outcomes of the workshop are included in three project Deliverables:
- Deliverable 3.1: Gaps and potential for integration of PES within the EU policies and financial framework – available at this link
- Deliverable 3.2: Gaps and potential for integration of PES within the state aid framework (available soon)
- Deliverable 4.1: Preliminary options for integration of PES and PES related mechanisms to EU-framework programmes (available soon)