(De)commodification of nature; Society-nature relations; Planetary boundaries and environmental justice

Abstract: Degrowth movement has been much considered as a response to the multiple crises that the dominant economic growth imposes to humanity and to the natural world. However, following the logic of ecosystem services approach, payments for ecosystem services (PES), among other projects, emerged and have been fostered with much enthusiasm bringing possibilities to understand nature conservation within economic (green) growth and market ideologies. Although, degrowth and PES may share some similarities, they are far apart, conceptually and ideologically, since degrowth is an alternative response to the economic growth model which PES rely on. The purpose of this paper is to relate PES and degrowth, highlighting the tensions between them. PES are becoming a strong trend in the field of environmental governance, yet despite its innovative character are portrayed as a neoliberalization conservation, fulfilling the fetishism premise to commodify nature and perceiving it as capital, aligning with the same economy that undermined the human relations and with nature.
Keywords: (De)commodification of nature; Society-nature relations; Planetary boundaries and environmental justice