ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO is a prominent international bank, its history going back to 1824. ABN AMRO ranks 11th in Europe and 20th in the world based on tier 1 capital, with over 3,000 branches in more than 60 countries, a staff of about 107,000 full-time equivalents and total assets of EUR 632.8 billion (as of 30 June 2004). ABN AMRO is listed on the Euronext and New York stock exchanges. With a global network, specialists in all major industry sectors and a broad range of products, ABN AMRO provides local and global expertise for complex cross-border deals.

BioCarbon Fund
The BioCarbon Fund will provide carbon finance for projects that sequester or conserve greenhouse gases in forests, agro- and other ecosystems. Through its focus on bio-carbon, or 'sinks', it will deliver carbon finance to many developing countries that otherwise have few opportunities to participate in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), or to countries with economies in transition through joint implementation (JI). The BioCarbon Fund will test and demonstrate how land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities can generate high-quality ERs with environmental and livelihood benefits that can be measured, monitored and certified, and stand the test of time. The BioCarbon Fund will be a public/private initiative established as a trust fund administered by the World Bank, similar to the Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF). The World Bank, as Trustee, will oversee the BioCarbon Fund's management and appoint a Fund Manager and a Fund Management Unit. This unit will be a part of the World Bank's carbon finance business and draw on the World Bank's experience with carbon finance, in particular experience gained from the PCF.

Conservation International
Conservation International (CI) applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the biodiversity hotspots, high-biodiversity wilderness areas and key marine ecosystems. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., CI works in more than 40 countries on five continents. For more information about CI, visit www.conservation.org.

Citigroup
Citigroup is the first financial services company in the U.S. to bring together banking, insurance, and investments under one umbrella. With the most diverse array of products and the greatest distribution capacity of any financial firm in the world, our 275,000 employees manage 200 million customer accounts across six continents in more than 100 countries. Citigroup companies include Citibank, Travelers Life, Primerica, Banamex, Diners Club and Smith Barney.

David and Lucille Packard Foundation
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation works to ensure opportunities for all children to reach their potential, to protect reproductive rights and stabilize world population, to conserve and restore the earth's natural systems, and to encourage the creative pursuit of science.

Department for International Development
The Department for International Development (DFID) is the UK Government department responsible for promoting sustainable development and reducing poverty. The central focus of the Government's policy is a commitment to the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals.

Forest Trends
Forest Trends, a Washington, DC based non profit organization, was created in 1999 by leaders from conservation organizations, forest products firms, research groups, multilateral development banks, private investment funds and philanthropic foundations. Its mission is to maintain and restore forest ecosystems by promoting incentives that diversify trade in the forest sector, moving beyond the exclusive focus on lumber and fiber to a broader range of products and services. To fulfill its mission Forest Trends works to accelerate development of markets for forest ecosystem services (such as watershed protection, biodiversity conservation and carbon storage), to expand markets of sustainably produced forest products and to advance markets that serve the interest of forest communities. Forest Trends convenes market players to advance market transformations, generates and disseminates critical information to market players, and facilitates deals among progressive actors in sustainable forestry.

The Katoomba Group
The Katoomba Group is an international working group composed of leading experts from forest and energy industries, research institutions, the financial world, and environmental NGOs, all dedicated to facilitating strategic partnerships that can launch green forest products in the market place. To accomplish this, the Katoomba Group must build collective understanding of how market-based instruments for environmental services are constructed and the conditions in which they can work. The group met for the first time in Katoomba, Australia in May 2000 and subsequent meetings were held on Vancouver Island, British Columbia in October 2000 and in Teresopolis, Brazil in March 2001. Forest Trends serves as the secretariat for this group and coordinates inter-sessional work.

The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy's mission is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. TNC has developed a strategic, science-based planning process, called Conservation by Design, to identify the highest-priority places—landscapes and seascapes that, if conserved, promise to ensure biodiversity over the long term. The Nature Conservancy seeks to partner with communities, businesses, governments, partner organizations and individuals to preserve the earth's lands and waters for future generations to use and enjoy.

PROFOR
PROFOR is a multi-donor partnership formed to pursue a shared goal of enhancing forests' contribution to poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and protection of environmental values and services. Housed at the World Bank, PROFOR seeks to encourage the transition to a more socially and environmentally sustainable forest sector through improved knowledge and approaches for sustainable forest management (SFM). PROFOR supports activities relating to four key thematic areas: forest governance, forests' contribution to livelihoods of the rural poor, cross-sectoral cooperation, and innovative approaches to financing SFM.

Redlac
RedLAC is a group of National Environmental Funds that seeks to set up an effective system for institutional learning, strengthening, training and cooperation through a Network of Environmental Funds with the ultimate goal of contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of nature in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Funds interact in a dynamic institutional strengthening and capacity building process. As a group, RedLAC has financed more than 3000 environmental projects and altogether the funds manage approximately US$600 million including endowment resources and revolving funds for conservation activities in the region and combined they have an annual operational budget of more than 70 million dollars for conservation activities in the region.

US Forestry Service
The USDA Forest Service International Programs promotes sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation internationally. By linking the skills of the field-based staff of the USDA Forest Service with partners overseas, International Programs can help address the most critical forestry issues and concerns around the world. International Programs regularly taps into the agency's wide range of expertise—including wildlife biologists, forest economists, hydrologists, disaster and fire management specialists, and policy makers—from a staff of over thirty-five thousand employees. International Programs works with partners in the field—including the US Agency for International Development, international institutions, and non-governmental organizations— and adds value to projects on the ground. In addition to technical assistance, International Programs also offers intensive, international seminars in the areas of protected area management, forestry administration and management and watershed management.