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The purpose of this paper is to make an analysis of the main issues of environmental or ecosystem services regulations in Argentina, and a brief reference of a selection of Latin American countries laws (Peru and Costa Rica). We implemented the documental observation and normative comparative methods. One of the main results is that during last year many bills of laws were presented at the National Congress, which guidelines might be useful as precedents. Notwithstanding, in parallel an integral evaluation must be made in order to state if some valid environmental laws should be or not abolished, in order to avoid new contradictions. One of the main limitations for the argentine case, is that there is not a specific regulation about environmental services. We can conclude that in the case of other countries of the region which already have regulated the ecosystem services payment, there are some relevant issues which might be taken into account for future laws and/or public policies in Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beach certification schemes (BCSs) have been designed to bridge the gap between recreation and conservation. However, there is no evidence supporting their effectiveness as tools for achieving a high level of sustainability. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of nine BCSs in Latin America and the Caribbean, based on indicators of sustainable development and integrated coastal management. For this purpose, a list of 27 objectives with 62 indicators was compiled and each scheme's effectiveness was measured by testing 95 requirements found in BCSs against the indicators. The results indicate that the analyzed schemes have low levels of effectiveness. The most effective certification complies with 60% of the indicators, while the average compliance level is only 33%. The weak areas of beach certifications involve, monitoring, management and planning, stakeholder participation, and conflict resolution. A few of the schemes were found to be moderately successful in these areas, but the less effective BCSs focused primarily on amenities and visitor satisfaction. It was found that the effectiveness of the BCSs could be increased by addressing their main weaknesses in a cost-effective manner through the hybridization of environmental management systems and benchmark certifications, and by implementing compliance standards based on beach type. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]