Everyday Environmental Justice in Payments for Ecosystem Services: Insights From Two Protected Areas in China

Abstract

Currently, social justice for the management of ecosystem services is promoted widely in international communities. Efforts have increased to develop indicators for justice assessment, but these are relatively static forms of results-oriented analysis without much understanding of the dynamics and pluralities of local justice in the management of ecosystem services. This research uses a novel perspective of everyday environmental justice (EEJ) to examine local practices of environmental justice in two protected areas in China where two different payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes have been implemented. It demonstrates EEJ as a useful, process-oriented analysis that provides a deeper understanding of peoples’ everyday lives and their environmental management practices within the varied contexts of local justice. Everyday practices of EEJ highlight the spatiotemporal dynamics and plurality of justice, thereby offering a broader and more explicit conception of the distributive, procedural and recognition dimensions of environmental justice in local contexts. The research calls on policymakers and researchers to consider the everyday practices of EEJ with a heightened understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of multidimensional justice.