Period	Characteristic	Description	Codes (binary)	Reasons to choose this characteristic
Input (I)	ES types (C1a) and ES values (C1b)	- C1a were originated from the reviewed works and divided into four ES categories by the MA (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment) report [258] or TEEB (the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) [79].	- Provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting or habitat services	Determining and reviewing properties of ES, such ES types and values is the first fundamental stage before implementing any PESPs as they are the core part of the environmental context that needs to be determined in PES policy design [15]. Four ES types (C1a) are commonly consisted of provisioning (e.g., food, raw materials), regulating (e.g., water quality regulation, pollination), cultural (e.g., recreation, ecotourism) [78,79], and supporting [78] or habitat services [79] (e.g., nutrient cycling, photosynthesis).
		- C1b were from the reviewed studies in valuing ES (cf. [[80], [81], [82],311])	- Biophysical, socio-cultural, and economic/monetary value-domains	ES value-domains (C1b) are based on the multidimensional nature of ES assessment, with various value groups that are: biophysical, socio-cultural, and economic/monetary value-domains [[80], [81], [82],311]. An ES assessment can be conducted by using different assessment methods or perspectives, such as biophysical, social or economic [82].
	Design phase∗(C2)	Contextual factors in interacting with the expected outcomes [15,71,72,[83], [84], [85]]	Environmental performance, socio-economic, political contexts	Contextual factors affect PES [130] making it important to identify contextual factors during the design phase of any PESPs [15,[71], [72], [73],[83], [84], [85]]. Considering all relevant factors around environmental/ecosystem performance, socio-economic, political and institutional contexts is required to enhance (in the design phase) and later measure (upon implementation) PESP effectiveness [71,72,76]. These factors are subject to the pull and push of PES stakeholders [72].
Implementation (II)	PES goals (C3)	General objectives formulated in PESPs [18,58,86,[136], [137], [138], [139]]	Protection and restoration, conservation, livelihood, multiple	PES outcomes for sustainability need to meet both conservation and development goals [58,136,137]. The goal of any PESP is built from the design stage, but it is answered in the implementation process and its sustained effectiveness is the most obvious after the project ends. Therefore, during the implementation of PESPs, with stakeholders, “there was a clear need to work together and in the same direction, following their common goal” [312, p.28]. Therefore, following PESPs' goals is to contribute to the clarification of context factors [103], but also helps to the successful development of PESPs [34,103].
	Funding sources (C4)	Financial source supporting PESP application [18,57,146,313]	International, public, private, NGOs, mixed sources	Determining fees, charges or payments is to explore how they are regulated and how their expenditure is linked to the provision of the ES [119]. Funding from different sources is one of the key factors to ensure for PESPs implemented [146]. It is proposed from design period [157]. And the fund flow is conducted in the implementation period of the programs. “Funding opportunities will not be restricted to projects that fit the strict PES best- practice definition” [184, p.56].
	Land ownership (C5)	Land tenure in the place where the PESPs are implemented [18,171]	Social (communities, Indigenous communities), or private (households, individual, business/companies) or public (state/government)	Transparent and secure property rights are a core prerequisite to PESPs successfully [34,179,182]. Determining land ownerships is a common criterion for PESPs [18,34,172,179,182]. Local people practice de facto land rights although states in some countries remains de jure land rights [314]. “Services are the result of particular kinds of land use, payments made under PESPs are payments to land users” [53, p.238]. Therefore, though determining land ownerships is forecasted and analyzed in the design phase, it is performed in the implementation phase of PESPs.
	Temporal scale (C6)	Number of years considered in the PESP applications [1,18,47,58,73]	Number of years, e.g., e.g., short-term (<10 years), mid-term (10–30 years) and/or long-term (>30 years)	All programs are run for a certain period. Temporal factor is one of the main criteria used to review and/or assess PESPs and it is linked to the spatial scale [1,7,18,53,58,315,316]. While studying tempo-spatial dimensions is important role in designing PES models [317], these characteristics are classified in the implementation phase as more reasonable.
	Spatial scale (C7)	Territorial extension of PESPs [7,18,58]	Local, regional, national, multi-national, international/global	All PESPs are run at a certain geographical level. Spatial scale is one of the main criteria used to review and/or assess PESPs and it is linked to the temporal factor [1,7,18,53,58,315,316]. While studying tempo-spatial dimensions is important role in designing PES models [317], these characteristics are classified in the implementation phase as more reasonable.
	Participation (C8)	Stakeholders in PESPs [1,18,61,71]	ES suppliers/providers/sellers, ES users/buyers and the intermediaries	Actors participating is a key component to implement any PESPs [26,29,45,153,221,222]. As they play an important role from initial feasibility determination, design, implementation of PESPs to adaptation process [153,221]. Especially, their participation in the implementation process is generally expressed in the most active way. As key stakeholders, including ES providers and ES users, participate directly in this period, such as in negotiating [151], tree planting and forest management [172,197], conservating natural resources [129,318], receiving the payments [55,203], changing or developing the local livelihoods [129,279,319].
	Payment modes (C9)	Types of payment applied in PESPs [2,18,29,48,73,88]	Cash, in-kind or mixed	Based on the schemes designed, methods of payments and quantities of payments are carried out in the implementation period [2,48,55,73,88,320]. In practice, payment levels are often close to the minimum willingness to accept of ES providers although this amount is generally suggested to be between ES providers' minimum willingness to accept and the ES users' maximum willingness to pay [55,73].
	Governance mechanisms (C10)	- Forms of operation [89]		Environmental governance is defined as the “set of regulatory processes, mechanisms and organizations through which political actors influence environmental actions and outcomes” [321, p.298]. Like other factor characteristics, governance mechanisms are designed before implementing PESPs.
		- Or financed sources of PESPs [17,166]
Output and outcome (III)	Sustainable livelihoods∗∗(C11)	Particular type of PES effects [18] focusing on enhancing five asset capitals for the local sustainable development [273,274,322]	Human-physical-social-financial-natural capitals	Sustainable livelihood development (SLD) is one of the two key goals of any PESPs [58,[136], [137], [138]]. PES outcomes, including the SLD reflect the effectiveness of designing and implementing processes to identify the lessons learnt, then reshape or adjust the input and implementation periods for a better fit of next period PESPs or other similar PESPs [75].
	Sustainability effect (C12)	Integration of PES effects generated [18,47,49,58,93,94,136,137]	Integration of social, economic, and environmental effects	Achieving sustainability effect from integration of social, economic, and environmental aspects is a desired outcome of any PESPs [18,[47], [48], [49]]. Assessing PES effects can explore the effect levels of the PESPs (positive, negative or no-change PES effects) for each PESP [18].

^∗Environmental context – one of the factors in designing PESPs, inevitably concludes the properties of ES [76]. Yet, the relative ES dimensions (C1) appears as a separate category to deepen its fundamental significance.

^∗∗In the perspective of sustainable development, understanding sustainable livelihoods is a specific dimension of the general sustainability. It is considered as a separate characteristic type to emphasize whether this outcome meets goals of PESPs [2].