Differentiated payments for environmental services: A review of the literature

•Implementation of differentiated payments contribute to improving PES efficiency.•Contextual heterogeneity of socio-ecological systems for DPES.•An assessment of DPES can guarantee its efficiency.•Social participation is a key element for accepting DPES and achieving its success.•Social, economic and environmental aspects, sectors and scale diversity worldwide. Payments for environmental services or payments for ecosystem services (PES) are issued by governmental or private organizations to support the conservation of ecosystems that provide environmental services at different scales. However, PES are often issued across large scales or distinct contexts, placing limitations that threaten PES efficiency. To address these limitations, differentiated payments for environmental services (DPES) have been proposed, based on specific conditions of particular cases or regions, being more efficient in achieving conservation goals and generating greater social and environmental benefits. The aim of the present review was to discuss studies of PES schemes around the world in articles published from 2000 to 2016 to highlight the essential elements that should be considered in DPES schemes. The tendencies of DPES regarding sector, aspects and scale were explored. Notably, the social and economic aspects of DPES schemes were most commonly addressed in the reviewed articles. The importance of social participation was often highlighted. The main findings highlight the relevance of considering the social, economic, and environmental aspects of DPES and the contextual heterogeneity of socio-ecological systems from a multidisciplinary and transversal approach and to encourage social participation in order to successfully design, implement and achieve DPES schemes efficiency.