Good practice

Mexico National Payments for Hydrological Services (PSAH)

Mexico · Guadalajara · See the Mexico profile

Mexico's national government PES scheme (CONAFOR) compensates forest owners ~USD 24/ha/yr to conserve 4.27 million ha of priority watersheds; 78% of payments reach highly marginalised communities since 2003.

~USD 24 /ha/yr

Tasa de pago

4.27M ha

Cuenca prioritaria conservada

78%

Pagos que llegan a comunidades marginadas (since 2003)

Mexico National Payments for Hydrological Services (PSAH)

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: CONAFOR - Comision Nacional Forestal
Period: 2003-present
Keywords: Tropical forest, watershed, water services, carbon

Context

El esquema nacional mexicano de Pagos por Servicios Hidrológicos, gestionado por CONAFOR, compensa a propietarios forestales por la conservación de cuencas prioritarias.

Results

Paga unos USD 24/ha/año para conservar 4,27M ha, con el 78% de los pagos llegando a comunidades altamente marginadas desde 2003.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

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

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-20
CONAFOR - Comision Nacional Forestal — accessed 2026-06-20
IIED - Mexico's Payments for Ecosystem Services Programme — accessed 2026-06-20
3ie - Impacts of Mexico's payments for ecosystem services (impact evaluation) — accessed 2026-06-20

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 60/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 16% in this catalogue (335 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Carbon — sequestration / storage, evidenced2/3

Enrolled forests maintain tree cover and reduce deforestation pressure; IIED and 3ie evaluations confirm lower deforestation in enrolled vs. comparable non-enrolled areas, but no tonne-level carbon verification is issued.

Biodiversity — conservation / improvement, evidenced2/3

Programme targets forests in high-biodiversity priority watersheds; IIED review finds enrolled areas have higher conservation value, though no species-level monitoring is published.

Water & soil — retention, infiltration, erosion control3/3

Core objective: compensating owners of forests above critical aquifer recharge zones and river headwaters; independent 3ie evaluation confirmed measurable hydrological outcomes.

Fire resilience — risk reduction, evidenced0/3

Fire risk reduction is not a stated objective of PSAH and no fire-related evidence is provided.

Governance, certification & transferability2/3

National-government programme with published annual rules, independent evaluations and budget transparency; lacks a tradeable credit registry or international certification standard.

Cite this

Evidoria. Mexico National Payments for Hydrological Services (PSAH). Persistent ID: e8f17b66-edc3-4e3c-a66b-33c80c3d29ca.

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