The Programme on rewards for, use of, and shared investment in pro-poor environmental services (RUPES 2) (2008 12) built on the concept of rewarding people to protect or enhance environmental services that benefit businesses or the wider population, expanding on the lessons learned in RUPES 1, in Indonesia, the Philippines, Viet Nam, Nepal, India and China. The target group for RUPES 2 was indigenous forest dwellers and smallholding farmers in less productive environments who were vulnerable to environmental degradation and climate change. Activities were aimed at national policies and the buyer and broker part of the rewards for environmental services (RES) value chain for longterm sustainability of benefits for the target groupThe project was a frontline activity focusing on the poverty aspects of climate change, responding to the Asia and the Pacific Divisions interest in combating land degradation and empowering the poor in upland areas. RUPES 2 helped find solutions for rural poverty, provided lessons for sustainable RES and support to policy makers and institutions to develop policies and services. In Indonesia, the National Rewards for Environmental Services Protocol, as the operational document of Law 32/2009 on Environmental Management and Protection, included lessons from RUPES. In Viet Nam, RUPES contributed to the formulation of Decree No. 99/2010 and its guidelines. In China, the State Council and the Government of Xishuangbanna Prefecture adopted the lessons from a RES scheme for grasslands, which was initiated by RUPES, for designing ecological land-use plans. In India, RUPES partner, Wetlands International South Asia, provided three scenarios of wetlands management that balanced human needs with ecological requirements to the National Environment Policy on the role of economic incentives for environmental conservation. In the Philippines, RUPES 2 helped draft the Philippine Climate Change Act of 2008 and conducted a final review of the Sustainable Forest Management Act in 2008. In Nepal, RUPES 2 influenced a policy shift in recognition of payments for environmental services (PES) among Hindu Kush Himalayan countries through its partner, the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development. RUPES 2 facilitated the engagement of international, national and local beneficiaries as investors in RES schemes, providing information for creating business cases such as quantifying and identifying ecosystem services, informing smallholders of the feasibility of schemes to improve their livelihoods, and conducting participatory monitoring, particularly for water quality and carbon stock and preparing local intermediaries to design and facilitate efficient and fair RES schemes. RUPES 2 also supported local actors by providing a series of tools, with accompanying knowledge-sharing sessions, for identifying environmental services as the basis for designing schemes. Local partners were also active in advocating policies for PES implementation at regional level and pioneering independent institutions as centres of PES initiatives. Good practices of RUPES have been published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Forest Trends, and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).