The last decade has witnessed a rapid increase in the popularity – both in theory and practice – of payments for ecosystem services (PES) as an environmental policy tool in developing countries (Pattanayak et al. 2010; Ferraro 2011). An early review by Landell-Mills and Porras (2002) found approximately 200 incipient PES schemes in developing countries, and the numbers have only increased since then (Pattanayak et al. 2010). Although often small in scale, a few countries have established nationwide PES schemes: Costa Rica has its Pagos por Servicios Ambientales (PSA) programme, which, since its inception in 1997, has made payments for forest conservation (primarily) on nearly half a million hectares of land; China has its Sloping Lands Conservation Programme (SLCP), which has thus far contracted 12 million hectares for reforestation in an attempt to stem soil erosion; and Mexico has its Pago de Servicios Ambientales Hidrológicos (PSAH) programme, which compensates beneficiary communities for preserving 600,000 hectares of forest (Pattanayak et al. 2010).