Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Development Politics, grade: A (18/20), Great Distinction, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Ghent University (Belgium), Agrocampus Ouest (France), Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany)), course: International Master of Science in Rural Development, language: English, comment: Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the joint academic degree of International Master of Science in Rural Development from Ghent University (Belgium), Agrocampus Ouest (France), Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany), Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra (Slovakia) and University of Pisa (Italy) in collaboration with Wageningen University (The Netherlands). This thesis was elaborated and defended at Humboldt University of Berlin, Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture. , abstract: Policy instruments based on Payments for Environmental Services (PES) have been increasingly applied by different actors responsible for water resources and environmental conservation in Brazil. This thesis analyses farmer's decision to participate or refuse participation these schemes, focusing not only on farm or farmers characteristics, but also on the process of project implementation.
The methodological structure consisted of a qualitative analysis under the perspective of institutional economics and a logistic regression model of revealed preferences. This structure applied to scrutinize three different PSE-water projects in Brazil: Conservadores das Águas (Extrema - MG), Oásis (Apucarana - PR) and ProdutorES (Espírito Santo State), selected accordingly to five main criteria: i) active projects, ii) active participation; iii) different governance models; iv) different farming regions; and v) similar ecological objectives.
Database consisted of 24 semi-structured interviews conducted with local environmental managers, and a survey applied to 163 participants and non-participant farme
