Presentation short abstract

This paper applies an ecofeminist political economy lens to payments for ecosystem services in Brazil, revealing how gendered and racialised labour inequalities remain overlooked in PES schemes and analyses, risking the reinforcement of existing injustices

Presentation long abstract

This paper develops an ecofeminist political economy (EPE) critique of nature-based solutions, focusing on payments for ecosystem services (PES). A recent intervention identified PES as a – well-financed – ‘hype’ with a minimal and contested empirical evidence base: with Global North institutions driving recommendations for the Global South based on empirical research in seven so-called ‘darling’ countries (Kolinjivadi et al., 2023). This recent contribution adds to a compelling body of critical scholarship focused on equity and social justice implications of PES. However, while political ecology, critical geography, and neoliberal conservation literature warns of potential negative social equity outcomes on-the-ground, work highlighting gendered and racialised inequalities still remains fragmented and rarely intersectional. This is particularly the case when considering the central role of labour involved in making PES work. Drawing on EPE, this paper makes two moves: It advances an EPE-approach to analyses of PES; and it demonstrates the analytical value of EPE through an analysis of payments for forest ecosystem services in Brazil, drawing on primary data from research on the Amazon Fund and its projects. It posits that given longstanding recognition of gendered and racialised material divisions of productive labour, unpaid care work (social reproduction), and environmental work (conservation care labour) in conservation schemes, the lack of empirical, intersectional analyses of PES risks reinforcing and invisibilising existing inequalities. The paper concludes that strategies, guidelines, and tools to reappropriate financial flows will fall short if they do not advance a materialist feminist approach to labour underlying PES.