Justice notions in Payment for Environmental Services: insights from China’s sloping land conversion programme

For over a decade, the Chinese government has implemented the Sloping Land Conversion Programme (SLCP), the world’s largest payments for ecosystem services (PES) programme. It uses public payments to convert marginal cropland located in upper watersheds into forests, engaging millions of mountain-dwelling households in the process1. The SLCP has received significant criticism from researchers in China and abroad in term of its effectiveness, efficiency and fairness2.