The Consulate joined USAID LEAF and Tipco Foods on Friday to launch one of the first Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) mechanisms in Thailand. PES helps match buyers and sellers of an ecosystem service to finance environmental protection and has been an effective way to engage the private sector in environmental protection around the world. Under the PES mechanism, communities in a rural Chiang Mai province will plant 3,000+ trees, which will provide improved watershed management in the Mae Sa-Kog Ma UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve, the source of Tipco’s AURA Natural Cold Spring Mineral Water.