| Summary/Abstract |
Global discussion of payment for ecosystem services (PES) has moved beyond the simple notion of effecting environmental and livelihood improvement for participants. Changes in the local governance following the introduction of PES have become a focus as it may affect the local incentive for sustainable natural resource management. Although there has been increasing attention on the interplay between different institutions in shaping PES outcomes, the institutional outcomes resulting from these interactions and the understandings of local institutional dynamics are limited. Drawing on in-depth case studies from Southwest China, this research uses an institutional bricolage framework to examine how pre-existing and informal local institutions interacted with a newly introduced and formal PES programme – the Chinese Sloping Land Conversion Programme. It reveals that institutional bricolage processes can lead to positive ecological and socioeconomic outcomes when hybrid institutions were built to fit the local socio-ecological contexts. The policy implication from this research calls for decentralisation reforms and provision of institutional flexibility. This would allow bricolage processes to foster adaptive governance in the implementation of PES programmes.
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