sustainability Article From Environmental Soundness to Sustainable Development: Improving Applicability of Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme for Diverting Regional Sustainability Transition in Developing Countries Xiaohui Ding 1,*, Chen Zhou 2, Volker Mauerhofer 3 , Weizhou Zhong 4 and Guoping Li 4 1 Northwest Institute of Historical Environmental and Socio-Economic Development, Shaanxi Normal University, No. 620, West Chang’an Avenue, Xi’an 710119, China 2 School of Stastics and Economics, Guangzhou University, No. 230, Huanxi Road, Guangzhou 510006, China;
[email protected] 3 Environmental Law Centre of the Organization for the Strategic Coordination of Environmental Research, Graduate School of Law, Meiji University, B730, 14 Gokan 1-1 Kanda-Surugadai, Chioda-Ku, Tokyo 101-8301, Japan;
[email protected] 4 School of Finance and Economics, Xi’an Jiaotong University, 74, Yantaxi Road, Xi’an 710063, China;
[email protected] (W.Z.);
[email protected] (G.L.) * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +86-029-8531-8752 Received: 18 December 2018; Accepted: 8 January 2019; Published: 12 January 2019 Abstract: In developing and emerging countries, rapid urbanization at an unprecedented pace and degradation of ecosystem services at an alarming rate have caused many regions, especially those in environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs), to encounter the “regional development dilemma” (RDD), in which regions can hardly divert their current development pattern to achieve a transition to sustainability. The main research focus of this study is to introduce—by means of a case study—a payments for ecosystem service (PES) scheme as a policy instrument that incorporates an ecosystem services (ES)-based baseline for payments and a spatial-targeting-based allocation plan to address that dilemma and to bridge, as well as achieve, sustainable development goals simultaneously at a regional scale.