Challenges in applying payment for ecosystem services to protect geographically isolated wetlands in a Brazilian intensive agricultural region

Geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs) provide essential ecosystem services worldwide, including rainwater retention, aquifer recharge, and enhancing water availability – critical functions in the context of climate change. However, these wetlands face severe degradation driven by economic pressures, inadequate land management, and weak land use policies. Despite growing interest in conservation instruments such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), the applicability of PES for conserving GIWs remains poorly understood due to the lack of spatial inventories and their limited recognition in policy frameworks, particularly in highly productive agricultural landscapes. This study assesses the feasibility of using PES as a conservation strategy for GIWs in a highly agricultural catchment in Brazil dominated by sugarcane cultivation. Using satellite imagery, we mapped GIWs and analyzed land use and land cover patterns within 50 m buffer zones, while critically examining how existing policy frameworks intersect with GIWs protection and PES design principles. Our findings reveal significant challenges to PES implementation, including a lack of formal protection status for GIWs, limited understanding of GIWs ecological functions and regional distribution, unclear private property rights, inconsistencies in interpretations of PES principles in policy frameworks, and restricted financial resource in a region where opportunity costs are high due to the profitability of agricultural production. PES alone appears insufficient to ensure GIWs conservation in the absence of regulatory protections and command-and-control mechanisms. These insights may inform decision-making in Brazil and other agriculture-dependent economies seeking to safeguard wetlands under intensive land use pressure.