The Selva Lacandona region in Chiapas, Mexico contains diverse and threatened forest habitats that are important for biodiversity and watershed protection. Small-scale agriculture and cattle grazing have contributed to deforestation and land degradation. Through the Corredor Biologico Mesoamericano - Mexico initiative, public and private investments are coordinated to promote sustainable agricultural practices, conserve habitats, and increase farmers' access to incentives and technical support. Payments for ecosystem services also support forest protection and restoration. Combined, these efforts improve agricultural productivity and resilience while reducing environmental pressures, though barriers like poverty and lack of access to markets and information remain.

1. • Rapid agricultural expansion causing
deforestation and fragmentation of highly
biodiverse forest habitats
• Intensive agriculture leading to land
degradation, loss of productive capacity of
soils, agro-chemical pollution and soil
compaction
• Vulnerability of large-scale monocrops to
pests, diseases, extreme weather and a
high dependence on agro-inputs
• Small farm size forces farmers to continue forest conversion
to expand agricultural land
• Deforestation of acahual for palm oil plantations displaces
milpa expansion elsewhere
• Lack of capital to:
• Implement forest restoration
• Invest in sustainable agricultural practices
• Lack of access to information and technology to improve:
• Sustainable agricultural practices
• Process practices and market agricultural products
• Limited marketing and alternative livelihood opportunities
• Under-valued agricultural products
• Limited access to rural services, credit and
government programmes to support sustainable
agriculture
• Capital to support:
• Reforestation and forest conservation
• Improved milpa agricultural production, such as
equipment, improved seeds and processing infrastructure
• Alternative livelihoods
• Technical assistance and support to build farmer capacity to:
• Develop integrated sustainable agricultural practices
• Improve soil conservation
• Development of and access to value-added markets
• Zoning of forest habitats to increase habitat
connectivity and conserve biodiversity
• Forest restoration and protection to improve
forest habitats and increase shade to retain
riparian systems
• Sustainable agricultural practices, such as:
• Improved milpa, mixed agroforestry,
improved crop breeds and silvopasture
• Soil conservation and improved irrigation
systems
• Crop and livelihood diversification to
increase ecosystem and income resilience
Threats to the Ecosystem Desirable Practices
Barriers to their adoption
Incentives Required
SELVA LACANDONA
CASE STUDY: Selva Lacandona, MÉXICO
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Incentives for Ecosystem Services in Agriculture (IES)

2. MÉXICO : Financial Investments for
Best Practices
Forest protection and
restoration to protect
water recharge area and
reduce GHG emissions
$ PRONAFOR
$ PRORRIM
$ CONABIO
Combined, these efforts result in improved farm productivity and resilience, and food security
$ PESA-FAO
2 Key: Public programme | Private sector investment
Improved maize, wheat
and cattle breeds
$ MasAgro
$ PURSN
$ PROGAN
Soil conservation: Use of organic
fertilizers and improved
irrigation
$ COUSSA
Certified sustainable shade- coffee plantations
$ Certificacion para la Productividad
Agroalimentaria
Sustainable maize and bean production
$ PROMAF
with improved harvesting and processing practices
$ PAAP
$ PROCAMPO
Zoning of protected
areas, ecosystem
monitoring
CBMM
Ecotourism infrastructure
$ Banamex
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Incentives for Ecosystem Services in Agriculture (IES)

3. 3
MÉXICO : Incentives for Ecosystem
Services
Biodiversity conservation
• Zoning of land use areas within and
surrounding forest habitats to limit growth of
the agricultural frontier and improved habitat
connectivity
• Ecosystem services monitoring
CBMM – Special
Program for the
Lacandona
$ CONABIO
• Monitoring ecosystem outcomes
• Multiple use zoning of land use areas
• Finance to transition to sustainable milpa agriculture
and agroforestry, reducing pressure to deforestation
$ Certificacion
para la
Productividad
Agroalimentaria
$ PESA-FAO
$ PAAP
$ Banamex
Livelihood diversification and strengthened
local capacity
• Development of alternative income generation
opportunities
• Development of market for certified coffee production
• Investment in production, harvesting and processing
equipment
• Sustainable development of marginalized rural
communities
• Finance to develop ecotourism infrastructure
Increased sustainable agricultural productivity
• Improved integrated agricultural practices, including
milpa, agroforestry and silvopasture system
development
• Soil conservation practices and improved irrigation
systems
• Crop diversification
$ MasAgro
$ COUSSA
$ PROMAF
$ PUSRN
$ PROGAN
$ PROCAMPO
• Technological assistance to transition to sustainable
agricultural practices
• Finance for improved breeds of beans, maize, cattle
and wheat, sustainable production investments,
organic fertilizers and improved irrigation
infrastructure
Incentives from the programmes/ investors:Financed by:Best practices:
$ PRONAFOR
(PSAH,
PSA-CABSA)
$ PRORRIM
Restoration and protection of forest cover
• Forest conservation in water recharge area and
riparian habitats
• Forest restoration
• Finance:
• For afforestation, forest protection and management
of water recharge area
• To reconvert maize plantations to forest and
agroforestry production
PES
IES
Incentive Type Key:
Incentives for Ecosystem Services in Agriculture (IES)

4. Selva Lacandona, in the state of Chiapas, is a mountain range containing diverse forest habitats. It is an important watershed that feeds the Usumacinta
river. The region is renown for organic coffee production, palm oil plantations, agroforestry, cattle grazing and milpa agriculture is conducted in both high
and lowlands, and riparian areas. Milpa is a traditional farming system that cultivates close to villages and is important for food security. Based on slash-
and-burn 5-year rotations with acahual fallow periods, it combines nutritionally and environmentally complementary crops, such as maize, beans, squash,
jalapeño with live edges of fruit and firewood.
Since 2009, the Corredor Biológico Mesoamericano - México (CBMM) in Selva Lacandona, has enabled CONABIO to coordinate public and private
investments within the corridor areas. The CBMM aims to strengthen the capacity for sustainable production practices in multiple farming systems,
conserve biodiversity and increase habitat connectivity through multi-use zones (buffer and protection). Through the CBMM initiative, CONABIO provide
incentives to enable farmers to rehabilitate degraded ecosystem services and stop deforestation. They also work with farmers to plan and access public
programs for improved sustainable, integrated practices established by CONABIO (such as milpa, agroforestry and silvopasture) to reconvert productive
systems to forest. In particular, improved milpa practices reduce the need for farmers to convert additional forest to cultivate new milpa land every 5
years, eliminating slash-and-burn. This supports farmers to comply with the forest conservation law by assisting them to overcome barriers to compliance.
Once farmers have rehabilitated their land and developed a plan with the CONABIO to reduce the impact of their farming system (sometimes at
community level), they are eligible to apply for access to credit through the Instituto Nacional de la Economia Social (INAES). This provides additional
incentives to enable the gradual conversion to long-term sustainable production with environmental benefits. This includes access to credit based on local
value chains with local demand such as ecotourism. Non-compliance to adopting sustainable practices and reduced deforestation removes farmer
eligibility to receive transitional finance and access these additional programmes.
An IES package can build on this initiative to promote an integrated approach within the Selva Lacandona. As part of this IES strategy, Payments for
Ecosystem Services (PES) are also an important instrument to decrease land-use change and promote productive agroforestry. In Selva Lacandona,
payments from México’s national PES initiative contributes to invest in forest protection and restoration. The use of the CBMM as an umbrella initiative
can facilitate public policy alignment to finance and provide technical assistance to farmers to improve milpa productivity, agroforestry productive
strategies, and reduce the need to expand agricultural land.
The Selva Lacandona ecosystem is threatened by:
• Deforestation and habitat fragmentation from slash and burn land conversion for grazing, milpa agriculture, road construction, settlements within
the Monte Azules Biosphere Reserve, palm oil plantations and logging. This :
• Has caused a loss of biodiversity
• Allows little time for fallow which reduces the productive capacity of soils. This forces farmers to convert additional forest areas to rapidly
increase productivity for pasture
• Increases the potential for soil erosion
• Reduces shade areas, drying riparian habitats and streams, disrupting watersheds
• Intensive agricultural practices such as monocultures of maize, high use of agrochemicals, especially within coffee, and extensive cattle ranching. This
has increased:
• Pollution from agrochemical run off into soils and water bodies
• The risk of pest outbreaks, and therefore livelihood vulnerability
• Soil compaction from intensive livestock grazing
• High poverty in the region. Farmers unable to invest in higher-value crops or escape the cycle of reliance on subsistence practices force farmers to
invest in high environmental impact, low input agriculture techniques, such as cattle ranching. This causes:
• Further ecosystem degradation
• Marginalization, malnutrition and illiteracy
MÉXICO: Overview
4
Incentives for Ecosystem Services in Agriculture (IES)

5. • Restoration and protection of forest cover can help to conserve biodiversity, improve forest habitat connectivity, stabilize soil structure, and increase
carbon storage. Increased vegetation can also protect riparian habitats and water recharge areas of the watershed.
• Implementing sustainable agricultural practices can increase overall production efficiency and environmental protection by reducing pressure on soil
fertility from intensive practices. Sustainable practices such as: Improved milpa (reduced burning of acahual to expand agricultural land), Silvopasture
systems to reduce deforestation; Improved agroforestry plantations (such as cacao and shade coffee); Improved crop breeds and irrigation systems;
and, Establishing organic agricultural systems. This can protect soils, reduce agrochemical runoff, decrease the need to expand agricultural land and
increase the long-term income potential for smallholder farmers. The low opportunity cost of implementing agroforestry can also enable the
engagement of poorer farmers.
• Livelihood diversification by generating alternative sources of income and diversifying crop species can assist to increase ecosystem resilience to
pests, diseases and risk of climatic events. This can also reduce the vulnerability of farmers to environmental shocks and market fluctuations.
However, smallholder farmers face barriers to adopting these sustainable practices:
• Degraded ecosystems and small subsistence farm size mean that farmers often have to rely on intensive agricultural practices or seek to expand milpa
agricultural land through slash and burn forest conversion.
• Deforestation to expand milpa cultivation can legally be conducted in young secondary forest (5-10 years), ‘acahual’. Improved milpa practices
encouraged by CONABIO aim to keep milpa in one location, reducing the need to deforest acahual further. However, palm oil plantations, prevented
from deforesting primary forest, can take advantage to deforest acahual previously left fallow to cultivate milpa to expand their plantations, displacing
milpa expansion to primary forest.
• High levels of poverty in rural communities limit the financial capital available to invest in sustainable agricultural practices, maintaining a cycle of
subsistence agriculture and unsustainable, intensive practices. Farmers lack:
• Finance to implement forest restoration, compensate for lost opportunity costs to reforest land normally used for agriculture, and capital to
enable the transition to adopt sustainable agricultural practices such as improved breeds, machinery, processing infrastructure.
• Information and technical capacity to implement improved agricultural practices.
• Alternative livelihood opportunities to reduce reliance on intensive practices and vulnerability to pests, diseases and climatic change. Small
farm size also increases the risk of food insecurity, and reduces the ability of rural organizations to access and invest in higher-value markets
and improve competitiveness for agricultural products.
• Access to government programmes to support the transition to and implementation of sustainable agricultural practices
• Access to rural services to reduce the marginalization of communities.
• A lack of recognition of local products and services derived from this region by regional and national markets, under-values agricultural goods and
services. Farmers are therefore forced to produce products of higher market value, but require unsustainable agricultural practices.
MÉXICO : Best Practices and
Barriers to Adoption
5
Incentives for Ecosystem Services in Agriculture (IES)

6. MÉXICO : IES Initiatives
Program Financed by: What it does
CBMM Corredor Biologico Mesoamericano -
Mexico
Development of sustainable production systems (training and assisting producer groups in improved practices). Establishing
business alliances for bio-labelled products. Develop institutional capacities. Project management and ecosystem monitoring.
Zoning (core, buffer, protected and multiple-use) of areas within protected areas
PRONAFOR
(PSAH, PSA-
CABSA)
Programma Pago por Servicios
Ambientales
Provides the over-arching framework for the national PES programme and integrates CONAFOR’s various forest programmes:
Financial incentives to landowners of forest who promote forest conservation in priority areas to support watershed
management, increase groundwater recharge, water quality, reduce landslide risk, carbon sequestration and biodiversity.
Activities include: Reduced deforestation, recovery of forest cover and degraded land, combating illegal logging, repairing
forest habitats and implementation of agro-forestry systems. Some of the resources to implement the PES program are
obtained via water fees.CONAFOR also foster local PES programs where the beneficiaries of the environmental services, such
as water users reward to the owners of the natural capital. The resources to implement this program come from the CONAFOR
and the local beneficiaries.
PRORRIM Programma de Reforestacion y
Restauracion Integral de Microcuencas
Financial support to promote the establishment of reforestation and maintenance of commercial forest plantations that
contribute to improved ecosystem services.
MasAgro Modernizacion Sustentable de la
Agricultura Tradicional
Sustainable modernization of traditional agricultural practices for maize and wheat crops, such as improved crop breeds, to
obtain high and stable yields, increase income and mitigate the effects of
COUSSA Conservacion y Uso Sustenable de Suelo
y Agua
Provides technical support for sustainable soil and water management, such as irrigation, watershed management , organic
fertilizers, cover crops, terracing, dams, green manures and wind breaks.
PROMAF Componente de Apoyo a la Cadena
Productiva de los Productores de Maíz y
Frijor
Financial support to strengthen the competitiveness of maize and bean production through the provision of technical
assistance, training, innovation, purchase of machinery and infrastructure.
PUSRN Programa Uso Sustentable de los
Recursos Naturales
Financial support to develop integrated systems of sustainable agricultural practices that rescue, preserve and enhance
biogenetic resources, and the conservation and sustainable use of soil, water, vegetation and production units.
PROGAN Programa de Estimulos a la
Productividad Ganadera
Financial support to increase productivity production of forage from pasture lands, technical practices to improve yields and
natural resources of pasture areas, reduction of intensive livestock system. Finance per head of registered cattle (under
SINIGA – Sistema National de Identificacion Individual de Ganado) if livestock producer implements practices to improve
vegetation and respect sanitary regulations.
PROCAMPO Programa de Apoyos Directos al Campo Subsidies to increase and stabilize rural farmer income to overcome financial constraints that may limit their capacity to make
productive investments.
Certificacion para la Productividad
Agroalimentaria
Investment to develop physical, human and technological capital, through value-added markets, risk management, capacity
building, research and technological development. Training and implementation for organic conversion
PESA-FAO Proyecto Estrategico de Securidad
Alimentaria
Support to improve food security and reduce poverty for marginalized communities. Includes technical training in sustainable
agricultural practices.
PAAP Programa Adquisicion de Activos
Productivos
Support to producers through investment for livestock development to increase productivity. Includes machinery and
equipment, vegetative material and husbandry, infrastructure (building and facilities), equipment for primary production,
harvest, storage and post harvest processing
Banamex Fomento Social y Ecologico - Banco
Nacional de Mexico
Financial support from corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSR) payments to build ecotourism infrastructure.
The Fomento Social y Ecologico programme promotes conservation through stewardship programmes that support protected
areas, sustainable production projects and environmental education.6
Incentives for Ecosystem Services in Agriculture (IES)

7. Policy Recommendations [To improve coordination and integration of initiatives and incentives]
• How does the CBMM policy assist CONABIO to engage with farmers to plan for sustainable
agricultural practices?
• What else is needed in addition to the CBMM policy, and to help improve its implementation?
• What innovative extension systems are required to ensure the capacity development of all
stakeholders and long-lasting results on the ground?
• How could CBMM activities be upscaled beyond Selva Lacandona?
• Who could CONABIO tap into for future financing?
• Private sector investment? Private sector compliance to conservation? Private sector
conservation concessions?
• Regulating palm oil plantation expansion to reduce acahual deforestation and increase
compliance to sustainable standards
• What policy support would be needed to integrate this financing?
• Re: Step 2 – Access to credit after land rehabilitation
• Can farmers still access those programs if it wasn’t through CONABIO or these integrated
farm plans? Or is access only available through CONABIO/ these plans?
• Does the CBMM policy that creates the corridors also require greater compliance/
conservation from farmers and other users (private sector, water users etc) within the
corridors?
• If farmers do not comply and adopt sustainable agricultural practices, and CONABIO will no longer
work with them, does this matter if they cannot access certain programs anyway? What is their
incentive to work with CONABIO?
• How could CBMM activities beyond Selva Lacandona?
MÉXICO : Policy
Recommendations
7
Incentives
Now
Future
Prohibition of use
Taxes/ Charges
Property use rights
Mandatory farm set-asides
Subsidies
Conservation easements
Permits and quotas
Marketing labels –
Certificates/ Standards
Offsets
Green Public Procurement
Voluntary farm set-asides
Conservation concessions
Direct Payments for
Ecosystem Services
Corporate Social
Responsibility
Marketing labels (without
certification/ standards)
Rewards for Ecosystem
Services (RES)
Cultural and social norms
Incentives for Ecosystem Services in Agriculture (IES)

8. Lucy Garrett Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
MÉXICO : Contributing Authors
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Incentives for Ecosystem Services in Agriculture (IES)