Registration ends 07.4.2026 at 23:59 h

Providing solutions to environmental and social issues is a common target of environmental policy. However, environmental and social issues are often assessed separately, generating unbalanced policy outcomes. An example is a policy that considers only environmental efficiency, but it is not socially just, or a policy that focuses only on social aspects but neglects environmental efficiency aspects. In order to avoid these types of unbalanced situations and to contribute to solving many of the “wicked” problems we will focus on a concrete policy instrument: Payment for Ecosystem Services. Payment for Ecosystem Services are spatially explicit market-based instruments that are increasingly including equity aspects (i.e., social variables), that should increase the positive effects and acceptance of these policies.
In this seminar, students will learn spatial aspects designing a Payment for Ecosystem Services Program (PESP) using terrestrial ecosystems of southern Chile as a case study, focusing on interactions between societal and environmental systems. In the first part of the course, students will be introduced to core applied spatial analysis concepts, databases and ways to model and map ecosystem services, along with other environmental and social criteria. For instance, students will learn how to map and model ecosystem services and how to combine that with social spatial variables. This will provide a focus and understanding relevant interactions in the design of PESP. In the second part of the course, students will develop an own project in a selected subset of the study area and develop a spatial project on with the aim of designing a “balanced” PESP.

Students will learn applied aspects of the design of Payment for Ecosystem Services in terrestrial ecosystems.

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