127 Tropical forests represent one of the rare eco- systems able to provide an abundance of products and support a diversity of human practices: from villagers seeking a source of natural products, the state seeking to conserve biodiversity, the timber processor, to the Global Environment Facility, which sees it as a carbon sink, the rainforest is multi-purpose and multi-stakeholder par excel- lence. First and foremost, the tropical forest provides material support for local populations’ way of life: the ecosystem is both their environment, a source of raw materials and foodstufs, and a land reserve for farming expansion. Most people in the Congo Basin meet basic needs by direct exploitation of their environment: fuelwood, timber, game, non- timber forest products (NTFP) … Nationally, the rainforest is often viewed as supporting economic development: industrial logging is supposed to generate economic growth, employment and foreign exchange earnings. Most reforms of sub-regional forest policy in the past ifteen years were primarily geared towards improving timber production and processing. Finally, tropical forests also provide a set of indirect beneits as “natural capital,” including the generation of environmental services. he loss of these beneits would diminish the well-being of human societies. Unlike the extractive uses of forest resources, the environmental services pro- vided by tropical forests are not yet incorporated into forest policies, even if all Congo Basin states have signed international conventions on climate change, biodiversity or wetlands. However, as stated in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, tropical forests have four functions that cannot be broken down just into the production of material resources. CHAPTER 8 A NEW T OOL FOR SUSTAINABLE F OREST MANAGEMENT IN CENTRAL AFRICA: P AYMENTS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES Guillaume Lescuyer, Alain Karsenty and Richard Eba’a Atyi Table 8.1: Categories of environmental services provided by forests Regulatory functions Productive functions he forest provides support to economic activities and human well-being by: he forest provides basic resources, notably: - climate regulation - hydric regulation - protection against soil erosion - maintaining biodiversity - carbon sequestration - recycling organic matter and human waste - building materials: wood, lianas... - energy: fuelwood... - food resources: non-timber products, game... - medicinal resources - genetic resources Physical support functions Informational functions he forest provides the space and re- quired substrates for: he forest provides esthetic, cultural and scientiic beneits: - habitat - farming zones - recreational sites - conserved natural spaces - source of cultural and artistic inspi- ration - spiritual information - historic, scientiic and educational information - potential information Photo 8.1: Tropical forests alternate between dense undergrowth and gaps. Payments for Environmental Services: Background © Frank Ribas - GTZ