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Good practice Imported

France's Payments for Environmental Services (PSE) Pilot — Three Years of National Agri-Environmental Contracts

France · Paris · See the France profile · See the Paris profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 14% 60/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

France's 2021–2024 national PES pilot paid nearly 3,500 farmers across 130 territories for water-quality, soil and biodiversity outcomes, contracting up to roughly 280,000 hectares with a €170 million state and water-agency budget.

170 EUR million
National budget envelope, 2021-2024
~3,500
Engaged farmers, end 2024 (2024)
5.83 EUR million
Adour-Garonne basin payments, 2019-2024 (2019-2024)
France's Payments for Environmental Services (PSE) Pilot — Three Years of National Agri-Environmental Contracts

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Ministère de la Transition écologique, with the Agences de l'Eau (regional Water Agencies)
Period
2021–2024 (experimental phase)
Keywords
agriculture, water quality, biodiversity, agri-environmental payments

Context

Launched in 2021 by France's Ministry for Ecological Transition with the six regional Water Agencies, the Paiements pour Services Environnementaux (PSE) experimentation pays farmers directly for measured water-quality, soil and biodiversity outcomes rather than for adopting specific practices.

Activities

By early 2023, 121 territorial PSE projects covered around 2,700 farms and nearly 250,000 contracted hectares, with farmers paid €90-130 per hectare per year; by end-2024 the programme had grown to ~130 territories and ~3,500 engaged farmers.

Results

The best-documented regional case, the Adour-Garonne basin (2019-2024, 30 territories), supported 807 farms over 77,863 hectares with €5.83 million in payments targeting biodiversity, water and soil outcomes.

Conclusions

Because the model pays for outcomes rather than a flat subsidy, evaluators note that measuring ecosystem-service delivery at scale remains operationally demanding; nationally aggregated ecological-impact data had not yet been published as of the 2024 review, ahead of a decision on permanent national rollout.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M) — €170 million national budget envelope for 2021-2024.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — 2021-2024 experimentation phase, ahead of a decision on permanent national rollout.
Staffing & skills
Ministry for Ecological Transition, Six regional Water Agencies (Agences de l'Eau)

Conditions for success

  • Payment for measured outcomes rather than a flat per-hectare subsidy
  • Regional water-agency co-management alongside national ministry coordination

Common failure modes

  • Measuring and verifying ecosystem-service delivery at national scale remains operationally demanding
  • No nationally aggregated ecological-impact data published as of the 2024 review

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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