Filling In The Information Gap On Market Based Instruments For Biodiversity Conservation

11 November 2014 | Biodiversity conservation lacks funding. Market-based instruments (MBIs) like payments for ecosystem services may be able to help. They can offer positive incentives for practicing sustainable activities that protect forests and watersheds and, in turn, conserve animals and their habitat.

MBIs have grown substantially in terms of use and visibility in the environmental space, according to the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), which is a non-profit based on policy research. But they lack concrete data on several components. Success rate is one such component lacking data. And because of this information gap, MBIs aren’t understood properly and aren’t used as often as they could.

In order for these instruments to significantly contribute to biodiversity conservation, this information gap must be addressed. IDDRI along with several partners intends to do that with the INVALUABLE (valuations, markets and policies for biodiversity and ecosystem services) project. The initiative’s overall objective is to clarify the potential of MBIs for financing conservation to policymakers so biodiversity can be better integrated into economic systems and decision-making.

These ideas were recently presented during a side event at the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Project coordinator Renaud Lapeyre put together a detailed analysis of this event that included several presentations on conservation finance mechanisms from different parts of the world. The event looks closely at the role MBIs can play in achieving number three of the CBDÃ’s Aichi Targets: developing and applying positive incentives for conservation.

The general consensus of the event was MBIs can make a difference although obstacles often prevent proper use. Terminology was one obstacle discussed during the meeting. It can easily cause confusion as the term, MBI, is often used too generally. This causes more misconceptions on MBIs functions and also weaker analysis, project researchers said.

Another topic was on payment scheme designs. A presentation drawing from two investments in watershed services projects in Indonesia presented on this issue. Both projects used intermediary agencies for monitoring activities and technical support. This led to more complexities and less involvement from local farmers. The presenter noted the importance of a simple design that follows a transparent process allowing for stakeholder engagement throughout.

Not surprisingly, the need for pluralistic approaches came up in discussion as attendees and presenters stressed the need for integration among sectors. Pluralistic is similar to the ever growing in popularity landscape approach to land management where all relevant sectors connect to solve land-use challenges holistically. Researchers during the INVALUABLE event touched lightly on this concept and also mentioned the importance of merging hard and social science with economic valuations of biodiversity.

These integrated approaches are innovative, which the biodiversity sector requires as it lacks the necessary finance to solve existing challenges. In the CBD’s Strategy for Resource Mobilization and the Strategic Plan for 2011-2020, it calls for exploration of new and innovative finance mechanisms. MBIs fall directly under this category. And perhaps with more guidance and knowledge through initiatives like the INVALUABLE project, use of them when applicable will increase.

The INVALUABLE project has been in operation since 2012 and is slated to run through 2015.

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Study Sees Sustainable Ag Driving Surge In Ecosystem Investing

6 November 2014 | They call it “conservation impact investing,” and the authors of a new report entitled Investing in Conservation: A landscape assessment of an emerging marketc define it as c“investments intended to return principal or generate profit while also driving a positive impact on natural resources and ecosystems.c Co-authored by EKO Asset Management Partners and The Nature Conservancy’s NatureVest division, the report says that $23 billion flowed into conservation impact investing over the past five years. The public sector, in the form of development finance institutions (DFIs) like the International Finance Corporation, accounted for $21.5 billion of that, with private investments accounting for just $1.9 billion.

Those numbers include investments in everything from watershed protection to habitat conservation, but they don’t include renewable energy, green buildings or anything that conserves nature as a byproduct instead of a primary objective.

While the private sector component is small, it’s also incredibly dynamic, growing at an average annual rate of 26% from 2009 through 2013. Two-thirds of that growth came in sustainable food and fiber production, including forestry, and the survey finds $1.5 billion or about 79% of the total invested over the past five years now on the books and ready to be deployed. The survey also says there are concrete plans to raise and invest another $4.1 billion through 2018.

“What the report tells us is that this is not a money problem, says report co-author Ricardo Bayon, a partner with EKO Asset Management. “It is about coming up with appropriate financeable deals. If we’re successful, it will mean that billions of new dollars will flow into efforts to improve sustainable food supplies, protect habitats, and achieve water conservation around the world.

The Global Canopy Programme says it will cost $300 billion annually to meet the current conservation challenges, and the survey says that $50 billion is flowing now, of which $23 billion comes from conservation impact investing which they expect will hit $37.1 billion over the next five years.

REDD in the Lurch

While the report identifies excess demand for conservation investments, that doesn’t apply to programs that slow climate change by saving endangered rainforest and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

Although the report identifies substantial public-sector investment in REDD, it only includes private-sector investment in its figures because these are the only ones that intend to either return principal or generate profit.

“Some REDD investments’ are functionally grants, the report states, citing the Norwegian government’s $500-million-per-year allocation. “While the private investors in funds such as the [Forest Carbon Partnership Facility] likely expect that their capital will be (at least) returned, most of the money invested in these funds comes from governments that only expect to see a return in the form of carbon credits, which they will then retire as a way to meet emissions reduction targets.

The report does include the purchase of REDD+ credits by private-sector initiatives that see them as an investment.

“Private firms such as Permian Global, Livelihoods Fund, Althelia, and Wildlife Works have created businesses built around investments in projects that deliver REDD+ credits, the report states. “These firms believe that emissions from forest degradation have been underestimated, and therefore mispriced.

The report was overseen by a steering committee that also included the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

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This Week In Forest Carbon: Half Of Tropical Deforestation Comes From Illegal Activities

17 September 2014 |What do a hamburger, a chicken nugget, a tube of toothpaste, and a cardboard box have in common? They’re all products that are likely connected to tropical deforestation.

About three-quarters of all tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2012 was caused by commercial agriculture for major crops such as beef (that hamburger), soy (used in chicken feed), and palm oil (which makes its way into toothpaste and countless other products), according to a new report by Forest Trends. The ‘conversion timber’  the trees cut down as a forest is converted to other land uses is often used in packaging materials.

Nearly half (49%) of tropical deforestation since the turn of the millennium has been due to illegal land conversion, the report finds. Illegal activity takes on many forms. In Brazil, for instance, organized land grabbers cleared swaths of the Amazon and then took advantage of government programs that grant land titles after the fact. In Cambodia, a rubber company was issued a land concession five times the size allowed by law, with more than half of the land area falling within a national park. In Tanzania, a jatropha company fudged the authorship of an environmental impact assessment and convinced villagers to sign documents they didn’t fully understand.

Illegal deforestation is a topic that has often been brushed under the rug, but it’s essential to address, the report argues, in part because of its scale.

“There is a lot of policy work and research and meetings and discussions that have been happening over the past two, three, four years regarding commercial agriculture and these commodities as a driver of deforestation, but the legality point has been almost non-existent within those debates,” says Sam Lawson, the lead author of the study.

Existing efforts to address global deforestation, such as the United Nations-backed program for developed countries to pay developing ones to reduce emissions from deforestation (REDD), are undermined by rampant illicit activity. Voluntary “zero deforestation” commitments by companies such as pulp giant Asia Pulp and Paper and palm oil trader Wilmar are also less meaningful when their pledges focus only on future deforestation, since illegally cleared land can continue to yield products such as soy and palm for decades, Lawson says. And as long as illegal activity goes unpoliced in so many places, there will always be companies willing to take the path of least resistance.

“One of the ways of getting ahead of the curve on agricultural commodities is if you learn the lessons of what took the timber community 20 or 30 years to realize that you need regulation at the consumer country level rather than just voluntary policies, and you may need to look at legality instead of sustainability,” Lawson says.

The report, Consumer Goods and Deforestation: An Analysis of the Extent and Nature of Illegality in Forest Conversion for Agriculture and Timber Plantations, can be downloaded here. Its findings have already echoed around the world through news coverage in The GuardianLe MondeDeutsche WelleDie ZeitBBC, and The Wall Street Journal.

 

More stories from the Forest Carbon Marketplace are summarized below, so keep reading!

The Ecosystem Marketplace Team

If you have comments or would like to submit news stories, write to us at [email protected].


News

INTERNATIONAL POLICY

Bold ambitions for Climate Week

On Sunday, September 21, artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese will install a 3,000-pound ice sculpture called ‘Dawn of the Anthropocene’ at the intersection of Broadway and 23rd Streets in New York City. And, as an anticipated 100,000 people walk through the streets as part of the People’s Climate Summit, the ice sculpture will symbolically melt away. The march is just one of the events surrounding the United Nations Climate Summit, during which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited world leaders from government, finance, business and civil society to “bring bold announcements and actions” next week. Forest-related events that will be occurring around the Summit include: a discussion of the demand-side challenge of deforestation-free supply chains; a panel of leaders from corporations, indigenous peoples and governments calling for action to reduce deforestation; a colloquium for thinking about big ideas for “transformational change” for forests and climate; and a photography exhibit on indigenous people protecting forests. A full list of events is available here.

 

Partners in forest

A new partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) aims to restore at least 150 million hectares of forest landscapes by 2020, an area the size of Alaska. Achieving this would sequester an estimated one gigatonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) from the atmosphere each year and generate $85 billion worth of annual ecosystem services benefits to developing countries. The collaboration brings together two major global initiatives the UN’s REDD program and IUCN’s Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration and will include a Helpdesk function for assessing restoration opportunities, as well as a mapping database for carbon and other benefits.

 

NATIONAL STRATEGY AND CAPACITY

Guyana, you are the weakest link!

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs singled out Guyana as a “weak element” among its partner countries in forest protection because of slow progress in utilizing Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund monies and other issues. But Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative Secretariat has a more positive view of the partnership because Guyana has made remarkable progress on the technical aspects. Guyana and Norway signed a REDD+ pay-for-performance partnership in 2009 that could amount to $250 million in payments to 2015, depending on Guyana’s performance. But stronger Norwegian representation in Guyana is necessary to ensure the partnership does not go awry.

 

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

It’s getting wet out there

The US state of Louisiana loses about a football field worth of wetlands every hour. Barring a major intervention, much of Southeastern Louisiana will sink into the Gulf of Mexico by 2100. The 2012 Louisiana Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast outlined an ambitious plan to save the state’s coastal wetlands, an effort that has already yielded some success in the form of completed projects, including a barrier island rebuilding project on Pelican Island. But current funding levels fall far short of the $50 billion needed for coastal wetlands restoration projects, meaning that other sources of financing including possibly the carbon markets must be identified and accessed.

 

SUSTAINABLE COMMODITIES

Is your fruit killing that tiger’s home?

Major palm oil suppliers may still be buying tainted palm oil despite commitments to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains, according to a new investigation by Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of environmental groups in Indonesia. The investigation tracked fresh fruit bunches illegally produced within the protected Bukit Batabuh tiger corridor in Sumatra and found the fruit entered palm oil processing facilities owned by Asian Agri, Wilmar and other companies and eventually shipped to a port that counts Cargill among its customers. But the investigation wrapped up in January 2014, before Asian Agri, Cargill and Wilmar announced new steps to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains.

 

FINANCE & ECONOMICS

When is the price right?

With national emissions trading systems or carbon taxes on the horizon from China to South Africa,companies are adopting a price on carbon for business planning purposes. Globally, 150 companies reported to CDP that they use an internal carbon price, but those prices have a wide range: Microsoft uses $6 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) while UK-based utility Pennon Group uses a range of $84.24-324/tCO2e (2010 and 2050 projections, respectively). These internal carbon prices are sometimes creating a pool of money used to purchase carbon offsets. But what is the right price to instigate behavior change inside companies? “Within the electric utility sector, you’ll start to see behavioral change around $30/tCO2e,” says Mark Trexler, Chief Executive Officer of the climate strategy and risk group Climatographers. “In the transportation sector, you won’t start to see behavior change until over $100/tCO2e.”

 

HUMAN DIMENSION

A Peruvian tragedy

Four leaders of the Ash¡ninka community  Edwin Chota Valera, Leoncio Quincima Melndez, Jorge Rios Perez and Francisco Pinedo were murdered last week on the Peruvian border with Brazil. They were on their way to meet with the Ash¡ninka in Acre, Brazil to continue their collective work to monitor their territories from illegal wood loggers and narco-traffickers. The assassinations may be motivated by revenge by illegal loggers, according to regional indigenous leaders. The Ash¡ninka and human rights campaigners released a manifesto that calls for the perpetrators to be brought to justice, for a permanent forum to address illegal activities on the Peru-Brazil border, and for establishing clear, legal land ownership for the Ash¡ninka. 

Ka’apor crackdown

In the Maranhao state in the northeast corner of the Brazilian Amazon, members of the Ka’apor tribe frustrated by inadequate government assistance in stopping illegal logging on their land are protecting their forest by force. A recent photo report shows warriors capturing illegal loggers, beating them with sticks, burning their truck and cutting into their precious logs to ruin the contraband. At least one man wears a shirt that reads “Guarda Ambiental Indigena” (Indigenous Environment Guard) as he expels loggers from the Alto Turiacu territory. The photographs were taken on August 7 by Lunae Parracho, for Reuters.

 

‘No, thanks’ to carbon finance

The Kuna Yala people of Panama have kept their 3,240-square-kilometer old growth forest intact even as other forests across Central America have fallen to logging and agriculture. In June 2013, the Kuna General Congress voted against participating in a REDD+ project proposed by project developer Wildlife Works that would presumably pay them to continue to keep this forest standing and sequestering carbon dioxide. “The Kuna people feel that many institutions, NGOs, and governments are taking advantage of them,” said Heraclio Herrera, a Kuna biologist. “We’re open to getting help, but we want others to respect the forests because they don’t belong to us; they belong to our creator.”

 

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Cooling things down

The conversion of forests into cropland worldwide has triggered an atmospheric change that has had a net cooling effect on global temperatures, according to a study by Yale University Professor Nadine Unger published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Unger reports that large-scale forest losses have reduced global emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), which control the atmospheric distribution of many short-lived climate pollutants. She calculated a 30% decline in BVOC emissions between 1850 and 2000, largely through the conversion of forests to cropland, which produced a net global cooling of about 0.1 degrees Celsius. During the same period, the global climate warmed by about 0.6 degrees Celsius, mostly due to increases in fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions.

 

A scary view from the top

More than 104 million hectares of intact forest landscapes were degraded between 2000 and 2013, an alarming rate of degradation of forest lands three times the size of Germany, according to a new analysis conducted using satellite technology and advanced techniques. The worst damage was done in the Northern boreal forest belt of Canada, Russia and Alaska, accounting for almost half the degraded land, while 25% of the degraded area was found in the Amazon rainforest and 9% in the Congo Basin. “We can clearly see that business as usual will lead to destruction of most remaining intact forests this century,” said Nigel Sizer, head of Global Forest Watch, the online forest monitoring and alert system hosting the new maps.

 

What a bargain!

The world’s tropical forests could be quickly and accurately mapped by a fleet of airplanes outfitted with advanced Light Detection and Ranging remote sensing technology at a bargain price of $250 million, according to a new paper published in the journal Carbon Balance and Management. This would be a more cost-effective approach than a typical Earth observation satellite mission, and far less than field-based sampling, according to the paper. The $250 million amounts to just 5% of the funding pledged to REDD+ initiatives.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Pricing watershed services in a thirsty world

In 2013, governments and companies invested $9.6 billion in initiatives implementing nature-based solutions to sustain the world’s clean water supply, with payments restoring and protecting a total of 365 million hectares of land, according to Forest Trends Ecosystem Marketplace’s State of Watershed Investment 2014. More than 90% of watershed investment came from national public subsidies, mostly in China, though the private sector particularly food and beverage companies is playing a growing role. “Environmental risk mitigation is clearly driving private investment in watershed health,” says lead report author Genevieve Bennett. “Water companies, for example, are finding it more cost-effective to pay for healthy forests that mitigate fire or flood risks upstream, rather than to face supply disruptions after an extreme event.”

 

Cropping up emissions

While more efficient agricultural technology has decreased pressure on forests in Latin America and Asia, a similar ‘green revolution’ in Africa could actually lead to more deforestation and higher emissions, according to a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In the context of an integrated global market, crops that shift to Africa will be grown more cheaply but will also have lower yields, therefore requiring more land up to 1.8 million more hectares than are currently cultivated on the continent, according to the study’s authors. The study estimates that pressure on forests would reduce within a few decades as yields improve, but tropical forests and their carbon stocks should be protected in the meantime.

 

JOBS

Post-Doctoral Researcher in Above-ground Carbon Dynamics Woods Hole Research Center

Based in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the Researcher will develop novel approaches to the direct measurement and mapping of above-ground carbon dynamics at a global and local scale. The position requires assembling and analyzing remote sensing datasets, and expertise building statistical relationships between field and satellite image data is needed. The successful candidate will be familiar with REDD+ and forest carbon monitoring, reporting, and verification.

Read more about the position here

 

Knowledge Management and Communications Officer Papau Low Carbon Development Programme

Based in Papau, Indonesia, the Knowledge Management and Communications Officer will support the Papaun Government, five regency governments, and other stakeholders in implementing a 20-year plan for sustainable development. The program aims to develop strong community-based businesses in a range of fields, from sustainable community logging to non-timber forest products to ecotourism. The position will require implementing communications activities such as policy briefs, reports, case studies, a website, seminars, conferences, exchanges and study trips.

Read more about the position here

 

Project Assistant, Litigation Team ClientEarth

Based in London, United Kingdom, the Project Assistant will provide administrative and research support for ClientEarth’s new litigation team, working on environmental justice, biodiversity, climate and forests, and other issues. The successful candidate will have a bachelor’s degree, excellent organizational and writing skills, and the ability to work well under pressure. Fluency in English is required; proficiency in another European language would be desirable.

Read more about the position here

 

Climate Negotiator, Sustainable Landscapes U.S. Department of State

Based in Washington, D.C., the Climate Negotiator will support U.S. engagement and help formulate and implement U.S. government policy on international climate change and related issues, particularly with respect to sustainable landscapes and REDD+ issues. Eligible candidates should have at least three years of experience in climate issues. Ideal candidates will have experience or exposure to international negotiations. U.S. citizenship is required.

Read more about the position here

 

Carbon Offsets Program Manager Google

Based in Mountain View, California, the Program Manager will support sustainability goals globally by coordinating and working on aspects of carbon offset procurement. Ideal candidates will have a master’s degree and five years of relevant experience with climate policy, procurement, contracts, and vendor management. The position will involve travel to all offset project site locations.

Read more about the position here

 

ABOUT THE FOREST CARBON PORTALThe Forest Carbon Portal provides relevant daily news, a bi-weekly news brief, feature articles, a calendar of events, a searchable member directory, a jobs board, a library of tools and resources. The Portal also includes the Forest Carbon Project Inventory, an international database of projects including those in the pipeline. Projects are described with consistent ‘nutrition labels’ and allow viewers to contact project developers.
ABOUT THE ECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACEEcosystem Marketplace is a project of Forest Trends, a tax-exempt corporation under Section 501(c)3. This newsletter and other dimensions of our voluntary carbon markets program are funded by a series of international development agencies, philanthropic foundations, and private sector organizations. For more information on donating to Ecosystem Marketplace, please contact [email protected].

Green Climate Fund Passes $10 Billion Threshold

9 December 2014 | Lima | Peru | Late last week, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) received good news when Norway doubled its pledge bringing the Fund’s total within USD $50 million of its $10 billion goal. $10 billion is the number the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres says is the minimum threshold to make a meaningful impact on climate change.

Today the Fund received more good news as Belgium is expected to contribute $60 million to the GCF, which is intended to counter climate change with mitigation and adaptation practices in developing countries. The European nation is expected to make a formal announcement later today during the High-level Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Finance at the 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).

Reaching the $10 billion mark has heavy symbolic meaning as the financial costs of the mitigation and adaptation needs far outweigh this number. In order for negotiations to truly move forward and for the possibility of an international climate agreement to be reached during next year’s COP in Paris, the $10 billion objective had to be achieved, industry analysts say.

“Crossing the $10 billion threshold has symbolic and financial significance,” says Athena Ballesteros, the Finance Center Director at the World Resources Institute. “Contributors have clearly demonstrated their commitment to helping countries confront climate impacts on-the-ground. This is an important down payment on climate action that can help build trust in the negotiations.”

During the high-level dialogue to take place later today (3-6 pm EST), other countries are expected to announce contributions to the GCF.

This Week In Forest Carbon: What Role Will Forests Play In Future Climate Deal?

9 December 2014 | Ecosystem Marketplace is right in the middle of the action in Lima, Peru this week, where thousands of government negotiators, non-profit representatives, indigenous leaders, corporate officials and journalists have gathered for the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP 20) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is in this strange alternative universe where people speak in acronyms and debate negotiating text over pisco sours that the groundwork for an international climate agreement next year in Paris is being laid.

 

What role will forests play in this future deal? After the last-minute agreement on the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) Rulebook at last year’s Warsaw COP, market participants were expecting a quiet year in Lima in terms of concrete decisions on forests – and that’s what they’ve mostly gotten so far.

 

In a roundtable discussion with Ecosystem Marketplace, REDD policy experts discussed the two major forest carbon issues on the table at COP 20: The rules for Safeguards and whether the guidelines for countries’ Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (see our COP alphabet soup piece for background) will include REDD.

 

The technical committee discussions concluded this weekend without a decision on whether the UNFCCC should offer further guidance on REDD social and environmental safeguards, punting the issue to June meetings in Bonn, Germany. Many tropical forest countries were in favor of this ‘no decision’ outcome.

 

“Many REDD countries said, ‘We’re implementing them [the safeguards], figuring out our system, making sure everything is connected,’ and they interpreted the calls for more guidance as additional demands being imposed even before they’ve been able to see if they have any problems or not,” said Peter Graham of World Wildlife Fund. “They’re basically saying, ‘You’re asking us to see how we’re doing before we do it,’ and they don’t see it as fair.”

 

The rules for INDCs will be discussed this week as the negotiations transition from technical discussions to policy ones and high-level ministers arrive.

 

“My understanding is that the INDCs to be submitted by March will be a range of numbers coupled with explanations saying, ‘This is how we came up with this number. These are the policies that we expect to use to implement or meet our INDC.’ Basically, numbers with context,” said Gustavo Silva of Forest Trends.

 

“Also, for some countries like least-developed countries, we’re not expecting them to come in with numbers, but more activities,” added Chris Meyers of Environmental Defense Fund. These activities might include forest conservation, climate-friendlier agricultural techniques, or even improved land tenure in indigenous territories, he said.

 

Over the next week, policy experts are following whether the rules for INDCs will specifically mention forests and land use, since this would send a signal about the potential role of REDD+ in countries’ emissions reductions plans.

 

More stories from the forest carbon market are summarized below, so keep reading.

—The Ecosystem Marketplace Team

If you have comments or would like to submit news stories, write to us at [email protected].

News

ANNOUNCEMENT

Ecosystem Marketplace in Lima

If you are in Lima this week, please join us tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the Forest Pavilion at Voces de Clima for a debrief of our State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2014 report. Co-authors Gloria Gonzalez and Allie Goldstein will present key findings from the report and provide insight on current market dynamics. Panelists Juan Carlos Gonzalez Aybar of Althelia Climate Fund and Mariama Vendramini of Biofílica will comment on their experience developing or investing in forest carbon projects and the state of the market in the context of the United Nations climate negotiations. More info about the event is available here. We look forward to seeing you there.

 

TOP STORIES OF 2014?

You decide!

It’s that time of year again…please rank the top forest carbon stories of 2014 here. Was it the first compliance forest carbon offset issuance in California? The first jurisdictional REDD payments flowing to Acre, Brazil? The Consumer Goods Forum zero net deforestation pledge? The Green Climate Fund reaching the $10 billion mark (today)? We give you 20 stories, you rank them (or add your own). We’ll tell you the results in the new year. The survey also includes a place to write in your predictions for the forest carbon market for 2015.

– Get ranking!

 

INTERNATIONAL POLICY

Older and wiser markets

Much discussion in Lima has centered on the potential “new market mechanisms” that could merge from the negotiations. But market experts speaking at a side event last week advocated that “new” should mean “reformed” rather than “starting from scratch.” “Because if we don’t learn the lessons of the (Clean Development Mechanism) and from Joint Implementation, then we’re simply going to recreate history,” said Miles Austin, Executive Director of the Climate Markets and Investment Association. The International Emissions Trading Association proposed language for a new agreement that includes a unified international transfer system that allows countries to transfer portions of the INDC contributions through instruments of their choice, whether that be CDM, REDD, or something else.

 

NATIONAL STRATEGY AND CAPACITY

Time to check those references

Colombia, Guyana, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico formally submitted information and data on their forest-based greenhouse gas emissions to the UNFCCC on Monday. This data is required to establish forest emissions levels in these countries – reference levels that are in turn used as the benchmarks for reducing deforestation and potentially receiving payments for REDD offsets. The data will now be assessed by forestry experts coordinated by the UNFCCC according to rules agreed on last year in Warsaw. These countries join Brazil, which was the first country to submit its reference level data last June.

 

Oh, how the mighty have fallen

New Zealand Carbon Farming is suing Mighty River Power for $34.7 million over carbon offsets the energy company contracted to buy to offset carbon emissions from electricity generation. The case is based on a methodology change governing the generation of forest offsets under New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme. Mighty River Power is resisting the claim because it could be forced to buy significantly more forest carbon offsets than expected, which would double the value of its 15-year contract with New Zealand Carbon Farming.

SUSTAINABLE COMMODITIES

No easy assembly

The Swedish behemoth company IKEA just unveiled a new palm oil policy, calling for zero deforestation and no conversion of peatlands for any oil used in its candle and food products. These actions go a step beyond the certification standards required by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, of which IKEA is a member. The company aims to source all of its palm oil sustainably by December 2017. Suppliers that fail to source certified palm oil will likely see their relationship “phased out”.

 

FINANCE & ECONOMICS

Just reaching the starting line

Norway last week announced it has doubled its pledge to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to NOK 1.6 billion ($258 million USD), bringing the fund to $9.95 billion. And today Belgium contributed $60 million,officially bringing the fund up to the $10 billion that the UNFCCC Executive Secretariat and others have set as the minimum that should be achieved at this COP. Parties have agreed that $100 billion per year should flow annually from developed to developing countries, both to curb emissions and to adapt to climate change’s effects, by 2020.

 

Early movers get the worm

The governments of Germany and Norway committed up to $65 million apiece to Colombia and Ecuador, expanding the REDD Early Movers Program (REM) to these two rainforest nations. The contributions will be distributed over three years, starting in 2015 through the end of 2017, as payments for verified emissions reductions. “The best contribution we can make as donors is to demonstrate that we are willing to pay for the results,” said Hege Araldsen, the Norwegian Ambassador to Ecuador, Chile and Peru. The announcement marks a significant expansion of the REM program, following the 2013 agreement between Germany and the state of Acre, Brazil.

 

HUMAN DIMENSION

A tragic outcome

After going missing on November 28, Shuar leader José Isidro Tendetza Antún was found deadlast week. Tendetza disappeared on his way to meet protestors against the Mirador copper and gold mine on his peoples’ territory in the Ecuadorean Amazon. The project is operated by Chinese conglomerate Ecuacorriente, originally a Canadian-owned company. Tendetza had planned to participate in COP 20. “We believe that this murder is part of escalating violence against indigenous leaders which responds to the Ecuadorean government and the companies’ need to clear the opposition to a mega-mining project in the Cordillera del Condor,” Luis Corral, an advisor to Ecuador’s Assembly of the People of the South, told The Guardian newspaper.

 

STANDARDS AND METHODOLOGIES

Agriculture strikes Gold

The Gold Standard launched its agricultural program last week at a side event at COP 20. “Our secret agenda is to make sure that payments for carbon reduction actually become payments for sustainable development,” said Pieter van Midwoud, Director of Land Use and Forests. The certified emissions reductions program includes streamlined guidelines for smallholder farmers. The Gold Standard is working with partners Hivos, Solidaridad and the Cool Farm Alliance, and their announcement states that they aim to make their agricultural program “a strong weapon for corporates implementing zero-net deforestation commitments.”

 

Digging into the details

Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund just released its soil carbon method for public consultation. The method seeks to offer a low-cost tool for cropping, pasture and mixed farming systems to calculate soil carbon. The method uses modeled estimates of sequestration and builds on the soil carbon grazing method used in the Carbon Farming Initiative. Consultation closes on December 12.

 

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

When a tree is logged, does the soil notice?

While scientists have a clear understanding about the above-ground biomass stored in forests, a lot remains unanswered about what happens underneath. The U.S. Forest Service assumes soil carbon doesn’t change from harvesting, but Dartmouth College researchers thought differently. They examined mineral soils, which are difficult to collect but make up the majority of carbon storage in the northeastern U.S., from forests logged 5, 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago. Their latest findings, reported in the Global Change Biology Bioenergy journal, found that harvested forests show a gradual release of carbon for decades following logging.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Keeping up on current events

Indigenous peoples in the Amazon have long suffered from economic straits while preserving standing forests. Yet because of these actions, they could not tap into REDD+ finance because their forests had no history of deforestation. A new study, “Forest Carbon in Amazonia: The Unrecognized Contributions of Indigenous Territories and Protected Natural Areas,” takes an innovative approach by focusing on current threats (instead of historic rates) of deforestation. It concluded that nearly one-third of indigenous and protected territories are under immediate threat from illegal logging, mining, dams and agriculture, while an additional one-fifth are under near-term threat. Presenting at COP 20, report authors emphasized the need to demarcate indigenous lands and to aid indigenous tribes in using life plan methodologies as a benchmark of success in REDD.

 

Consolidation is the name of the game

COP 19 in Warsaw, Poland produced a series of decisions around REDD+ commonly known as the REDD Rulebook. However, it wasn’t completely comprehensive. Prior UNFCCC decisions had additional implications for REDD+. A new publication, The Consolidated Guide to REDD+ Rules under the UNFCCC, written by the Baker and McKenzie Law for Development Initiative combines all of the UNFCCC REDD+ rules into a single document.

 

No clear road to REDD

In the Center for International Forestry Research’s (CIFOR) new book, “REDD+ on the Ground: A Case Book of Subnational Initiatives Across the Globe“, the authors analyzed 23 REDD+ initiatives from all over the world to try and tease out global lessons. William Sunderlin, a principal scientist for CIFOR, presented about the report findings at a COP 20 side event, noting the importance of clear land tenure in REDD projects. “There are reasons for hope in the future about REDD but there are certainly grounds for serious concern, and this book will give you an appreciation for how big the obstacles are,” he said. “The core concept of performance-based incentives has proved very difficult to implement without secure, long-term funding.”

 

JOBS

Staff Accountant – Forest Trends

Based in Washington, D.C., the Staff Accountant will focus on accounts payable, project audits and payroll. Candidates should have a bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance or equivalent with two to five years of experience in a non-profit setting.

– Read more about the position here.

 

Manager, Investment Analysis – New Forests, Inc.

Based in San Francisco, California, the Investment Analysis Manager will be responsible for acquisition valuation, fund portfolio model development and maintenance, and cash flow management for the New Forests investment funds managed in the U.S. Successful candidates should have at least six years of meaningful experience in comparable roles with investment firms or conservation mission NGOs and a Chartered Financial Analyst designation and/or master’s degree in relevant field.

– Read more about the position here.

 

Program Manager, Government & Community Partnerships – Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

Based in Vientiane, Laos, the Program Manager will take overall management responsibility across WCS sites for the Lao Program’s Community Partnership component, which includes outreach, land-use planning, and sustainable livelihoods sub-component, and lead coordination activities at various government levels. Successful candidates should have a master’s degree in environment-related field, extensive knowledge of Government of Lao PDR ministries involved in natural resource management and good Lao language skills.

– Read more about the position here.

 

Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Specialist – United Nations Development Program

Based in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Specialist will develop a communications strategy to support the legal certainty of forests in Indonesia by arranging workshops on participatory mapping, initiating a media campaign at the national level and more. Successful candidates should have a master’s in communication and at least six years of experience in a related field.

– Read more about the position here.

 

Assistant Professor – Oregon State University

Based in Corvallis, Oregon, the Assistant Professor is a 9-month tenure-track position within the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management. The professor will contribute to the Department’s focal areas of forest management, economics, and policy through research on the application of economic analysis to problems of active management of the forest resource for an array of objectives. Successful candidates should have a PhD in forest, resource or applied economics or related economics program by date of hire and an educational background in economics sufficient to teach master’s level courses in Oregon State University’s Applied Economics Program.

– Read more about the position here.

ABOUT THE FOREST CARBON PORTALThe Forest Carbon Portal provides relevant daily news, a bi-weekly news brief, feature articles, a calendar of events, a searchable member directory, a jobs board, a library of tools and resources. The Portal also includes the Forest Carbon Project Inventory, an international database of projects including those in the pipeline. Projects are described with consistent ‘nutrition labels’ and allow viewers to contact project developers.
ABOUT THE ECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACEEcosystem Marketplace is a project of Forest Trends, a tax-exempt corporation under Section 501(c)3. This newsletter and other dimensions of our voluntary carbon markets program are funded by a series of international development agencies, philanthropic foundations, and private sector organizations. For more information on donating to Ecosystem Marketplace, please contact [email protected].

This Week In Biodiversity: A Pre-Listed Species Credit Policy Stirs Debate

This article was originally published in the Mitigation Mail newsletter. Click here to read the original.

 

22 August 2014 | This month, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a new draft policy on building a crediting system that would protect threatened wildlife that hasn’t yet been listed as endangered. The policy, which is part of the Service’s Candidate Conservation program, seeks to incentivize landowners into early conservation.


“The adage
‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ is appropriate here,” says the FWS’ Chief of Public Affairs, Gavin Shire. “This policy is one more tool that can be used in conjunction with the others to help prevent species decline.” Under the proposal, any landowning entity individuals, companies, government agencies, etc. can earn credits by practicing conservation that benefits an unlisted species.

But while early conservation isn’t disputed as a sure way to preserve a species, is some skepticism out there regarding voluntary measures. We cover the debate here. A public comment period on the draft policy is open until September 20, 2014.

In other news this month, environmentalists are not happy about evidence that a mining company successfully haggled down its mitigation costs by one-fourth, and Canada takes a crack at accounting for its natural capital values.

We also have two pieces on results-based finance: one looking back at the evolution of efforts to link payment to performance, and a blog post that considers how to refocus Farm Bill conservation subsidies on outcomes.

Happy reading,

The Ecosystem Marketplace Team

 

If you have comments or would like to submit news stories, write to us at [email protected].


EM Exclusives

Should landowners earn biodiversity offsets for conserving a species’ habitat before it becomes endangered?

A new draft policy issued by the US Fish and Wildlife Service grants credits to all types of landowners for practicing conservation for wildlife not yet listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The credits generated can be redeemed or traded only after the species becomes listed, which is already leading certain parties to question the effectiveness of the conservation being practiced.

Get coverage from Ecosystem Marketplace.

 

Results-based finance: breakthrough or backslide?

Everyone loves “results-based finance at least in the abstract because everyone likes to get what they paid for. Quantifying those results and packaging them for buyers, however, has proven elusive once you get beyond payments for ecosystem services. Here, Ecosystem Marketplace takes a look back on the evolution of results-based finance.

Read more.

 

Wrestling with orangutans: the genesis of the Rimba-Raya REDD Project

In 2007, businessman Todd Lemons had a hunch that anthropologist Birute Galdikas could help him rewrite the rules of conservation finance and save the Seruyan Forest. He followed that hunch to Borneo, where the two embarked on a five-year ordeal that would take them from the swamps of Kalimantan to the pinnacles of Indonesian society.

Read the latest in our series on palm oil versus the peatland forest.

 

Crossroads in climate negotiations when adaptation and mitigation meet in Bonn and Lima

While the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change hasn’t yet considered identifying linkages between adaptation and mitigation, several Parties agreed over its importance at last month’s climate conference in Bonn. The topic is likely to come up again during upcoming sessions in Bonn and at COP20 in Lima.

Learn more.

Mitigation News

Expansion of saltwater mitigation bank leaves opponents with bitter taste

The controversial salt marsh mitigation bank in the Savannah River Basin in South Carolina may double in size. The bank would be 840 acres in all, with 350 of those acres converted from freshwater wetlands to salt marshes. The area is adjacent to a wildlife refuge and initially caused a stir because freshwater wetlands, which act as vital habitat for birds and other wildlife, are becoming increasingly rare whereas salt marshes aren’t. Conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the bank’s construction but the case was dismissed because salt was already found within the area.


Meanwhile, S.C.’s Department of Natural Resources is claiming the Army Corp of Engineers’ alterations to a pipe allowed saltwater to infiltrate freshwater areas within the Savannah River Basin. The Corp’s Savannah District argues this isn’t true, and that it was authorized to carry out urgent work that protected property from being flooded.

Get the full story on the bank expansion.
Read about the debate between the SC DNR and the Corps.

 

Critics allege Australian mining co. ‘bargained down’ its offset requirements

Australian government officials are on the defensive after documents surfaced revealing that a mining company was able to bargain down its biodiversity compensation obligations. Initially, the Labor government required that GVK Hancock secure AUD$800,000 (USD$744,000) in biodiversity offsets to mitigate for impacts from a proposed coal terminal. But after GVK Hancock came back with a counter-offer of $375,000, the two settled on $600,000. “The offsets package is meant to be a measure of last resort if it’s not possible to avoid damage. The quantum of that should be determined by the environmental impact, you shouldn’t be able to haggle the amount down,” Greenpeace campaigner Adam Walter tells the Guardian. A Department of the Environment spokeswoman says that the opportunity to comment on offset requirements is standard procedure.

“Consistent with…legal requirements, Hancock was provided with the opportunity to comment on the proposed decision, conditions, and financial contribution before a final decision,” she said.

Read more from the Guardian.

 

World wakes up to wetland values

After discovering that wetlands act as buffers against flooding and hurricanes as well as act as huge carbon sinks, there is a newfound urgency to repair and maintain the world’s wetlands. Communities around the globe are looking for restoration techniques and ways to stem the ongoing loss. And several communities are delivering on innovative projects. In the Delaware Bay, for instance, a local non-profit is building a “living shoreline” with oyster shells and marine limestone which will protect the Bay’s marshes from erosion.

Read more at Yale 360.

 

Natcap accounting arrives in Canada, courtesy of Ducks Unlimited

Accounting for natural capital just got easier in Canada. The conservation organization Ducks Unlimited Canada published a report last month that measures the monetary and well-being value of the nation’s natural lands. The study is the first of its kind in Canada that establishes protocols for valuing natural assets like wetlands. The study also shows NGOs, governments and companies how to incorporate natural capital into their balance sheets.

Read more here.

 

Mit banking roundup

It’s been a busy month in the mitigation and conservation banking world. Here’s our roundup of news blasts:

In Minnesota, the St. Louis County Board approved the Sax-Zim land exchange, removing another hurdle for Ecosystem Investment Partner’s 21,000+ acre venture – which will be the largest private wetland mitigation bank in the United States.

Mitigation Solutions USA released a second round of American Burying Beetle credits from its Muddy Boggy Conservation Bank in Oklahoma, and plans to add another 579 acres to the bank.

American Timberlands Company of Pawleys Island got approval for its 1,304-acre Carter Stilley Wetland and Stream Mitigation Bank serving South Carolina’s Horry and Georgetown Counties.

Westervelt Ecological Services’ 160-acre Colusa Basin Mitigation Bank in California issued its first set of Giant Garter snake credits.

The Doonan Creek Environmental Reserve received an AUD$970,000 (USD$902,000) offset payment from a federally funded highway project that will provide 9.3ha of new koala habitat.

Sheboygan County, WI is buying the 322-acre Amsterdam Dunes property to develop its own wetland mitigation bank.

 

BLM’s Greater Sage-Grouse conservation plan receives failing grade in Wyoming

Conservation for the declining Western bird, the Greater Sage-Grouse, can now be graded. A scorecard developed by six conservation organizations is rating greater sage-grouse conservation efforts across 60 million acres of public land based on specific scientific recommendations. Organizations involved in its creation include WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity. So far, the scorecard has failed the Bureau of Land Management’s field office in Lander, Wyoming, saying its sage-grouse conservation plan didn’t meet 24 management recommendations.

Learn more about the scorecard.

 

Efforts made to keep Gunnison Sage-Grouse off the Endangered Species list

Closely related to another candidate for Endangered Species listing, the Greater Sage-Grouse, the Gunnison Sage-Grouse is also rare and up for a possible listing this November. In the meantime, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is updating various conservation plans into one range-wide plan. The range-wide plan is intended to iron out inconsistencies in protecting the bird’s existing habitat and hopefully avoid a listing status.

The Durango Herald has the story.

 

Louisiana farmers lend their fields to migrating water birds

Louisiana farmers are proving themselves good neighbors. The Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative that was put into place after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has become popular among the locals. The initiative is meant to keep birds from settling in oiled areas by creating additional acres of water bird habitat by keeping water on cultivated fields longer. Research supports the program finding migrating birds did use the additional habitat on the agricultural lands. And because of its popularity, its creator the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has allocated $300,000 to continue the program.

Learn more.

 

New South Wales ecosystem services, biodiversity regulations in question

A review of Australia’s New South Wales’ environmental legislation is finally happening. A review panel will be addressing inadequacies in several of the state’s laws including the Native Vegetation Act 2003, Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and the Nature Conservation and Trust Act 2001. Among several areas of interest, the panel will be looking at ecosystem services and biodiversity protection requirements the landowners must finance themselves.

Learn more.

 

A new Farm Bill focus on conservation outcomes raises new challenges

The 2014 Farm Bill gives the US Department of Agriculture authority to integrate (on a limited, experimental basis) performance-based metrics for wildlife and habitat outcomes, which would reward landowners for outcomes rather than implementing practices. That could mean better return on public investment. But a shift toward an outcomes-based approach also requires careful choice of indicators, and risks placing too much responsibility on the landowner. A new blog post up at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation website considers how to actually “get what we pay for.”

Read the post here.

 

Live chat on natcap accounting searches for solutions to encourage investors

How can private sector investment in natural capital be scaled up? The Guardian newspaper asked that question during a live chat with several experts in the fields of ecosystem services and finance. The responses covered a lot of ground on the subject, but experts focused on the significance of recognizing natural capital as a valuable concept to invest in and the necessary tools and mechanisms needed to scale up investments.

Read the chat transcript at the Guardian.

 

Finding the value in restoration for coastal communities

While there is strong evidence that natural infrastructure protects coastal communities from extreme weather, evaluating the economic benefits of ecological restoration projects at the local level remains difficult. But new studies that identify the hefty financial increase in storm damage costs from wetlands loss (one acre of wetland lost results in a $13,360 jump in flood damages), as well as specific data on investments in restoration, might help change that.

Read more at The Nature Conservancy’s Cool Green Science blog.


EVENTS

16th Annual BIOECON Conference: Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability

The BIOECON Partners are pleased to announce the Sixteenth Annual International BIOECON conference on the theme of “Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability”. The conference will be held once again on the premises of Kings College Cambridge, England. The conference will be of interest to both researchers and policy makers working on issues broadly in the area of biodiversity, ecosystem services, sustainable development and natural capital, in both developed and developing countries. 21-23 September 2014. Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Learn more here.

 

Biodiversity and Food Security From Trade-offs to Synergies

This conference is the third in a series, organized by the French CNRS Institut Ecologie et Environnement (InEE) and the German Leibniz Association (WGL). The conference is based on invited keynotes and contributed posters for any of the topics relevant to the conference theme. Keynote speakers are now confirmed, including Professor José Sarukhí¡n, UNAM, México, and Professor Jacqueline McGlade, UNEP, Nairobi. Biodiversity at all levels, including the diversity of genes, species and ecosystems, is lost at alarming rates. Critical factors for these trends are habitat destruction, global warming and the uncontrolled spread of alien species. Pollution, nitrogen deposition and shifts in precipitation further affect biodiversity. Food security faces significant challenges due to population growth, poverty, globalization, climate change and other factors. Supplying healthy food to all citizens is crucial for global development – to reach it, not only food production but also equitable access to food for all people must be improved substantially. Biodiversity loss and global food security are hence two major challenges of our time. Linking biodiversity and food security issues from a research perspective, and seeking synergies between them is likely to generate multiple benefits for social, ecological and economic development. 29-31 October 2014. Aix-en-Provence, France.

Learn more here.

 

ACES 2014 Conference: Linking Science, Practice, and Decision Making

ACES: A Community on Ecosystem Services represents a dynamic and growing assembly of professionals, researchers, and policy makers involved with ecosystem services. The ACES 2014 Conference brings together this community in partnership with Ecosystem Markets and the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP), providing an open forum to share experiences, methods, and tools, for assessing and incorporating ecosystem services into public and private decisions. The focus of the conference is to link science, practice, and sustainable decision making by bringing together the ecosystem services community from around the United States and the globe. ACES 2014 will bring together leaders in government, NGOs, academia, Native American communities, and the private sector to advance the use of ecosystem services science and practice in conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions. We hope you will make plans to join more than 500 ecosystem service stakeholders in this collaborative discussion to advance use of an ecosystem services framework for natural resource management and policy. 8-11 December 2014. Washington DC, USA.

Learn more here.


JOBS

Ecosystem Services Specialist

The Willamette Partnership – Portland OR, USA

The Willamette Partnership works to increase the pace, expand the scope, and improve the effectiveness of conservation. We believe that measuring, tracking, and communicating the results of conservation investments can spark an exciting leap in conservation outcomes. Our success depends on working with partners with roots in place and community, and on our ability to connect good ideas, good people, and good solutions.

The Partnership is seeking to expand our team of policy and technical specialists that conduct research, analysis, and writing to support the ongoing work of the Willamette Partnership. Our specialists collaborate with project managers in developing the policy, science, and tools necessary to build and operate ecosystem markets and conservation incentive programs for water and biodiversity.

This position is expected to contribute to new and ongoing projects that may include:

  • Developing a set of national best practices for water quality trading;
  • Designing policy and technical tools for quantifying, tracking, and communicating changes in water quality and habitat; and
  • Operation of existing environmental markets.

Learn more here.

 

Sustainable Fisheries Initiative Program Assistant

Wild Salmon Center – Portland OR, USA

The Program Assistant is a nonexempt full-time regular position, eligible for organizational benefits. S/he is responsible for providing Russian-language program support for WSC’s Sustainable Fisheries Initiative (SFI). This program is using innovative market-based approaches to support salmon conservation and sustainable fisheries in the Russian Far East and across the Pacific Rim.

The ideal candidate will be independent and resourceful and will have real world experience working or living in Russia. Understanding the challenges and opportunities of working in the Russian Federation is a key to success in this position. The candidate should also have the ability to multitask, and have strong project management and Russian language skills. A background in international fisheries issues such as experience working as a fisheries observer or within the seafood industry and market incentives such as third party certification will be considered a valuable plus.

Learn more here.

Click here to view this article in its original format.

Verified Conservation Areas:
A Real-Estate Market For Biodiversity?

 

21 August 2014 | There are markets for silver and there are markets for houses, and it doesn’t take a genius to see the difference between the two: an ounce of silver is an ounce of silver, interchangeable with any other ounce of the same quality, but the value of a house or any piece of property can fluctuate with the color of the flooring.

Carbon markets resemble silver markets because a ton of carbon dioxide has the same impact on the environment regardless of whether it comes from a smokestack in Germany or a forest fire in Brazil. That made it possible to create a global transparent marketplace designed to support sustainable development and identify the most efficient ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Biodiversity markets, however, have always been local because habitat is often unique and irreplaceable. A road that damages a bit of sage grouse habitat in the United States might be able to make good by restoring or preserving habitat of equal or greater environmental benefit in the same ecosystem, but even that approach has only a narrow band of effectiveness. “You can’t offset an extinction, as Joshua Bishop of WWF Australia once said.

As a result, most biodiversity banking is confined to the developed world, which has the resources if not always the political will to balance development with conservation. Most degradation, however, is taking place in the developing world, which has massive development needs and little resources for conservation.

That got Frank Vorhies thinking: While we can’t offset biodiversity loss in one part of the world by saving habitat in another, could we somehow introduce the elements of transparency and accountability that work so well in carbon into conservation? And if we do, might this free up more capital for proactively supporting environmentally valuable areas, regardless of their location?

These questions, posed in 2008, launched an evolutionary process that drew on expertise from across the biodiversity spectrum and led to the formulation of something called “Verified Conservation Areas, which are areas with specific conservation needs that have been identified and specific conservation actions that have been defined. As envisioned, many will be areas that haven’t yet been degraded, but that are under some sort of threat that can be identified and then either avoided or minimized through a process that is audited and transparent.

The areas and their action plans will be listed on the VCA Platform, much as houses are listed on a real estate board. Nearly 20 VCAs are currently being considered, and the first one is expected to be approved later this year.

Real Estate and Habitat

Vorhies, who set up the economics and business programs at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), says that to understand VCAs, you have to look at the real estate market.

“People will tell you what the going rate is for apartments to rent or to buy but each has got a different storyline, a different location, and that’s what biodiversity is like, he says. “Every bit of nature, every landscape on the planet, has a different set of issues and perspectives and legacies and threats and challenges.

Intuitively, we all know this, and the conservation community has long funneled money into protected areas around the world, but that money hasn’t flowed in a standardized way that makes it possible to determine its impact, and it rarely finds it way to areas that are environmentally important but unprotected. Contrast this with carbon, where there are extensive rules both guidelines and methodologies that must be followed, starting with establishing a baseline to measure any changes over time, and where the targets are explicitly those areas that aren’t already protected by law, in the case of forest carbon.

Where’s the Guidance?

“Nobody’s providing practical guidance on area-based biodiversity assessment, says Vorhies, explaining that to improve the conservation status of areas, we need to know baselines on ecosystems and their services, species and their habitats, and both the conservation and sustainable use of an area’s biodiversity.

“CI (Conservation International) produced a rapid biodiversity assessment tool, but it only looks at wild species, he explains. “CI, IUCN, FFI (Fauna & Flora International) and others are helping companies with biodiversity baselines, but these studies are generally not public.

What’s missing, he says, are publicly-available tools for developing conservation baselines that a critical mass of people can agree on.

2008: Why Reinvent the Wheel?

When the initiative first launched in 2008, the carbon markets were in full swing. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the first global trading platform for environmental credits, was backed by the auspices of the United Nations, and Europe’s compliance emissions trading program meant that companies were eager to participate.

“So the folks over in the biodiversity world were saying, Look at those guys in the carbon world  they’re getting a stack of money. Why can’t we create a Green Development Mechanism (GDM) for biodiversity financing?

Thus the idea of a GDM was born, but it was a name without structure; and, as Vorhies later learned, that name was as much of a hindrance as a help in securing finance.

What’s in a Name?

When he approached different countries and investors for support of the project, Vorhies encountered two types of people: those who liked the CDM and those who didn’t. On top of that, he found that both camps read too much into the acronym and, for better or worse, they both saw it as more akin to the CDM than it was.

“So we had to change the name, he explains ruefully, “After the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in 2010, we changed it to the Green Development Initiative, or GDI, to get rid of the CDM-GDM association because it was driving us nuts.

2010: Refining and Redefining

That letter change effectively stopped all comparisons between the two, but the initial problem remained: what would the initiative stand for? All Vorhies knew at the time was that he didn’t want it to be like the CDM.

“It was quite clear that it wasn’t a commodity market; biodiversity isn’t a commodity, he says. “The best market we could use was a property market to think of biodiversity as something that you would recognize, trade and indeed celebrate like you do in property management.

With a property market, such as apartments, each location has unique attributes: some might be close to public transportation; others may have a pool on the rooftop; and others might have a view. But aside from these additional features, all apartments can be described in terms of size, number of bedrooms, and other constant features.

Similarly, every landscape will have characteristics that can’t be replicated just as they will also have basic qualities, like size and ecosystem, which can be described anywhere around the world. Taken as a sum of these descriptors, every conservation hectare has a story and a price.

This holistic approach led to another key difference between the GDI and CDM, at a time when the latter began to crash in the carbon world. The initiative wouldn’t be limited to offsets, although offsets could be one of many options in a developer’s landscape management plan.

“The offset’s only there for when you’ve gotten to the point of irreparable damage and can’t do anything else, he explains. “But to get to that point, you have to do a whole lot of good things: like avoid, minimize, and restore. And that’s the stuff that needs to be recognized, celebrated and financed through making conservation visible.

Good Deeds Unrewarded

Vorhies spoke from experience, having previously consulted Yemen LNG, a natural gas company building a new harbor to export gas over a coral reef ecosystem. The company tried to minimize its impact, and it even contacted IUCN to review its decision to relocate the coral nearby, away from where the piers needed to be. Vorhies says they spent large sums on this innovative technique but received no recognition for their efforts. With nothing of value to show their shareholders and no external driver to conform to, the company couldn’t justify its costs.

“Do you see the coral reefs? asked the company’s environment manager in 2011, explaining his conundrum. “No. Just leave them. We’ve now got to get on with our business.

Vorhies believes that if the company had to do a performance report every year, and had an accountable action plan, that would at least give the environment manager an opportunity to fundraise inside of the company for a biodiversity budget. Indeed, they had already spent a large amount on relocation, and it would not take nearly as much to manage and monitor the conservation of the corals. The company and its investors, could also be recognized publically for their in-situ conservation efforts.

2013: Visibility, Accountability and Marketability

By now, Vorhies had a solid set of criteria for a biodiversity mechanism that he thought would work, but the GDI acronym didn’t quite capture it. “You try to do an elevator speech with the initials GDI and people say, that sounds really good but what is it?

Thus, the Verified Conservation Area (VCA) Platform rose from its rejected predecessors to become the final name of the initiative for now and it came with the elevator pitch that fit the name.

The elevator pitch is this: the VCA Platform will provide visibility, accountability and marketability to project areas, but the specific improvements are up to the project developer.  A verified conservation area may then focus on carbon, water, or any other “benefit while, ideally, the central focus would be a cohesive landscape approach much as the landscapes approach that’s evolving in the carbon world, where carbon sequestration is seen as a proxy for good land management.

But how do you create a methodology that’s applicable in any ecosystem?

A Wing and a Toolkit

Recognizing this challenge, the VCA Platform instead relies on making innovation as it goes by only requiring those involved with the project on the ground to have quantifiable metrics and present them publicly and transparently. Armed only with the standard and a basic toolkit approach, VCA hopes to develop best practice guidelines in this way.

“When it comes to actually measuring performance, we don’t have any agreed metrics to do a baseline assessment, let alone performance measurements, Vorhies explained.

Instead, the toolkit provides the basic building blocks for designing a management plan requiring a baseline assessment, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis, and a concrete action plan. The latter goes onto the VCA Platform, with yearly updates including independent audits. Every year, an annual performance report will detail what exactly has happened in the area. Similar to an annual financial report, the audit will provide transparency about detailed activities in the area. Investors or donors could then go online, and look at actual projects before contributing.

2014: Building up the Brand

Despite the long journey from GDI to VCA Platform, the brand still needs greater recognition. For companies to buy into a new standard, they need assurance that the standard itself is credible. The VCA Platform doesn’t have that yet.

Currently, the platform has started a pilot program and has a mandate from two government agency donors the Swiss and the Dutch to coalesce all of these ideas into a solid business plan for scaling up This business plan is now being presented to potential investors in the platform itself seed capital to establish a new marketplace for verified conservation.

Already, there are a few protected areas (PAs) on the waiting list; even though those areas traditionally have a government mandate for conservation, they see the VCA as a way to state what they are delivering and as a way to raise funds. There are also areas on the other end of the spectrum: both private biodiversity restoration areas, including a rainforest in Brazil and a savannah wilderness in Mozambique, and projects linked to commodity supply chains or traditionally suspect sectors like mining and oil and gas. Yemen LNG, for example, has recently proposed to register its industrial harbor as a VCA.

Regarding working with extractive industries, Vorhies says, “I don’t see myself why mining can’t be just as responsible as the tourism which we run in our national parks in the U.S., with all the roads and hiking trails and the campgrounds and facilities required for tourists. With mining, they could come into a conservation area for 20-30 years and leave an endowment; whereas with tourism, when do we get rid of these people and what do they leave behind?

Similarly with agriculture, a field is often seen as having “destroyed conservation areas, yet Vorhies remains optimistic about their inclusion. This is evidenced by the growing use of sustainability standards for various commodities including coffee, cocoa, soy, and palm oil. The VCA Platform, however, brings a landscape level focus to sustainable agriculture which is of real interest to major food companies like Unilever.

“The VCA in that sense is not about recognizing that we’ve totally damaged this part of the world and therefore must pay. It’s more like saying this is where we are today and this is what we can do to make it better It isn’t a conservation story; it’s a process of improvement. That’s the idea. We’ve tried to move the language from compensation to good practice. If we want to conserve our planet, we need to create a market for delivering conservation.

This Week In V-Carbon…

This article was originally posted in the V-Carbon newsletter. Click here to read the original.

 

14 August 2014 | The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), known as one of the leading carbon standards in the voluntary markets, is ready to move into California’s regulated market in a major way. VCS announced last week that it has been authorized by the state’s Air Resources Board (ARB) to pre-screen coal mine methane and other types of offset projects for California’s carbon trading program.

The VCS just became the third voluntary registry, following the American Carbon Registry and the Climate Action Reserve (CAR), to be designated as an offset project registry, which allows the VCS to help administer parts of the ARB’s compliance offset program.

“The California system is on the cutting edge of figuring out how to tackle climate change,” said David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer of the VCS. “We feel it’s time to be part of the game and part of the solution.”

In addition to evaluating currently eligible projects, the VCS has set a specific goal of helping California welcome REDD+ (reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) projects into the program. The VCS jurisdictional and nested REDD+ (JNR) requirements were the first framework for accounting and crediting REDD+ programs implemented at either the national or subnational level. The Brazilian state of Acre with which California and the Mexican state of Chiapas have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was the first jurisdiction to pilot the JNR framework and is “really quite close” to becoming the first jurisdiction-wide program to deliver compliance-grade REDD+ offsets, Antonioli said.

The VCS has a vision of its toe-hold in California evolving into other compliance markets throughout North America and potentially worldwide.

Meanwhile, officials in California and Mexico in late July signed a MOU and formally agreed to work together on a range of actions to address climate change, including pricing carbon pollution. The most obvious area of cooperation would be for California to recognize REDD offsets generated by projects located in Mexico in its program, he said.

“I think there are great opportunities for making things happen across the border,” Antonioli said.

These and other stories from the voluntary carbon marketplace are summarized below, so keep reading!

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The Editors

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V-Carbon News

Voluntary Carbon

Driving the carbon away
Volkswagen (VW) and Audi have partnered with 3Degrees to purchase offsets covering the emissions associated with the car and battery manufacturing, distribution, and warranty miles for the VW eGolf and Audi A3 e-tron automobiles. VW selected offsets from the Garcia River and Big River and Salmon Creek Forests afforestation/reforestation projects in California and the methane capture project at the McKinney Landfill in Texas among others. Audi will also source offsets from the McKinney Landfill and the Garcia River projects, plus the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project in Kenya. The initiative is scheduled to last for the next three model years.Read more here

 

Brown gets greener
UPS has set a new goal of a 20% reduction in carbon intensity from transportation by 2020 after meeting its previous goal of reducing its air and ground fleet’s emissions intensity 10% by 2016.The shipping firm’s carbon reduction strategies include alternative fuel vehicles, route optimization, and carbon neutral shipping options for customers. The UPS carbon neutral shipping program purchased 48,467 tonnes of carbon dioxide (tCO2e) offsets in 2013, according to its most recent Sustainability Report, up from 43,575 tCO2e in 2012. The offsets were purchased from the Garcia River and Kasigau Corridor forestry projects, as well as methane destruction projects in Thailand and China. Read more here

 

Offsetting in the Great White North
Toronto-based CO2EXCHANGE has officially launched a website inviting individuals and businesses to reduce their carbon footprint. The offsets featured on the new online platform are currently sourced from several projects located in Canada including the Darkwoods forestry project the subject of a damning and controversial audit by British Columbia officials in 2013. Other Canadian projects supplying offsets on the platform include a composting facility verified by the VCS and a landfill methane avoidance and a biomass project verified by International Organization for Standardization. The platform also features offset projects outside of North America, including an Australia-based solar project, and an India-based wind energy project. Read more here

COMPLIANCE CARBON

Staying home with the Kiwis

The New Zealand Environmental Protection Agency’s annual report on its national emissions trading system (ETS) shows that compliance entities utilized imported offsets, such as those from the European Union Emissions Trading System, to fulfill nearly all of their obligations under the domestic carbon cap. A change in the program will prevent the use of international offsets after this year, forcing companies to rely on domestic New Zealand Units. But the entire ETS could be in jeopardy as some New Zealand legislators want to replace it with a carbon tax while others want it completely scrapped. Read more here

 

The list just keeps growing
The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has approved 33 new projects for use in the countrys seven pilot ETS programs. The new projects could produce up to six million offsets annually, equivalent to about half of the number of offsets traded in the pilots thus far. About 2,000 companies that face restrictions on their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under pilot ETSs can use the offsets, known as Chinese Certified Emissions Reductions (CCER), to cover 5-10% of their annual emissions. The new projects bring the total approved by the NDRC to 49, mostly wind and hydro power stations. According to IDEAcarbon, the first issuances of CCERs are expected this fall. Read more here

 

Speaking the same language
On July 28, California and Mexico signed a MOU to enhance cooperation on climate change. The agreement calls for the participants to formally share their design expertise on climate change policies, including ETS programs, and to discuss the potential for future alignment of policies and programs. The voluntary carbon markets have already established a presence in Mexico through the CAR’s Mexico Forestry Protocol and this agreement could represent another step towards bringing REDD+ into the California offset mix. Separately, Mexico signed a deal allowing Japanese companies to invest in Mexican GHG reductions through Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism. Read more on California/Mexico
Read more on Mexico/Japan

 

For the birds
The Audubon Society has sold half of the 450,000 offsets from its Beidler Forest project in South Carolina to companies in California’s cap-and-trade program. The 5,200-acre forest conservation project is registered through Blue Source and the offsets are selling at a minimum of $8/tCO2e. The Audubon Society receives 80% of the proceeds and directs the funds towards an endowment that will support the forest in perpetuity. Jeff Cole, the vice president of portfolio development for Blue Source, expects additional offsets to be generated in the future as the forest grows.
 Read more here

 

The beavers need something to chew on
Cap-and-trade programs such as the one in California could help conserve and grow forests in Oregon, which cover nearly half of the US state 62 million acres, according to Christine Yankel, a senior project analyst at The Climate Trust. Forestry offsets overtook ozone-depleting substances projects as the largest source of offsets issued by California regulators earlier this summer. The improved forest management projects allowed in California program provide a path to sustainable forest management that facilitates both timber harvest and conservation, she said. But the challenge for Oregon is that 60% of the forest land in the Beaver State is owned by the US federal government and therefore ineligible to contribute offsets to the California program, Yankel acknowledged. Read more here

 

Joining the carbon pricing party?
A taskforce in the US state of Washington has begun evaluating the possible implementation of a price on carbon in the state. Governor Jay Inslee has instructed the Carbon Emissions Reduction Taskforce to look at an ETS or a carbon tax that could help meet the Evergreen State’s commitment to reducing GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, 25% below 1990 levels by 2035 and to 50% below by 2050. Inslee plans to use the taskforce recommendations due in November to draft and propose bills for legislative consideration in 2015.Read more here

 


Carbon Finance

Breakthrough Or Backslide?
Everyone loves “results-based finance at least in the abstract because they like to get what they paid for. Quantifying those results and packaging them for buyers, however, has proven elusive once you get beyond payments for ecosystem services. Ecosystem Marketplace provides a look back at how results-based finance has developed along with the benefits and challenges it presents. Read the story at Ecosystem Marketplace

 


Science & Technology

Offsets by the mile
A new study from Montana State University conducted for the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) shows that active management of roadsides within public lands and US highways could significantly boost their carbon sequestration capacity and generate carbon offsets. The FHWA is currently funding research on the potential along New Mexico’s 7,500 miles of state roads. Results range from a 35% to 350% increase in carbon sequestration in the test areas. New Mexico estimates that revenue could reach $1 million annually, based on current offset prices. Read more here

 

Calculating the carbon
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released a report that provides uniform scientific methods for quantifying changes in GHG emissions and carbon storage from land uses including cropland, grassland, livestock and agroforestry. The new methods and the accompanying website, COMET-Farm, will help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners calculate potential GHG reductions from using practices that qualify for carbon offsets. Read more here

Featured Jobs

Director of North American Compliance Markets – Verified Carbon Standard
Based in San Francisco, California, the Director will lead the organization’s efforts to work with existing and emerging compliance frameworks throughout North America. Eligible candidates will have at least 10 years of relevant work experience and expertise in carbon markets. Read more here

 

Carbon Sales Manager Carbonbay
Based in Hamburg, Germany, the Carbon Sales Manager will manage a large carbon project portfolio focusing on South and Central America. Successful candidates will have a masters or a bachelor’s degree in business administration or similar field. Fluency in English and Spanish is required. Read more here

 

Congress Assistant, Resilient Cities – ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability
Based in Bonn, Germany, the Congress Assistant will support the Resilient Cities team with the Resilient Cities congress series, as well as related regional events. Ideal candidates will have interest and experience in event organizing, as well as an interest in the areas of cities and local government as an asset. Read more here

 

Communications Manager – Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI, Inc.)
Based in New York City, New York, the Communications Manager will be responsible for development and implementation of communications related to all aspects of RGGI, Inc., including auctions, allowances tracking and engagement with stakeholders. Eligible candidates should have at least two years of work experience in communications, with demonstrated experience related to sustainability, environmental policy or energy. Read more here

 

Program Manager, Environment and Health – Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
Based in Washington, DC, the Program Manager will provide programmatic and administrative support to the research program at the intersection of its environment, climate, and health portfolios. Successful candidates will have a master’s degree or higher in a relevant area and at least five to seven years of relevant research or work experience. Read more here

ABOUT THE ECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACEEcosystem Marketplace is a project of Forest Trends, a tax-exempt corporation under Section 501(c)3. This newsletter and other dimensions of our voluntary carbon markets program are funded by a series of international development agencies, philanthropic foundations, and private sector organizations. For more information on donating to Ecosystem Marketplace, please contact [email protected].
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World Bank Initiative Moves Talk On Water Energy Nexus To Action

 

13 August 2014 | Thirsty energy is a catchy phrase that encompasses the water for energy aspect of the water-energy-food nexus. It’s also the name of the World Bank’s relatively new initiative that aims to help governments face a resource constrained future by implementing integrated planning methods. The methods will address the limitations and opportunities of both water and energy.

The Thirsty Energy initiative intends to do this through policy guidance and the development of technical tools as well as spreading general awareness about the linkages between water and energy. It aims to inform the private and public sector alike on the water intensive activities of energy production.

Most importantly, the initiative seeks to gain an understanding of the water-energy nexus that goes beyond traditional connections, says Diego Rodriguez, a Senior Economist in the World Bank’s Water Unit. Ecosystem Marketplace’s Genevieve Bennett spoke with him about Thirsty Energy and all it entails.

GB: What is the story of Thirsty Energy’s genesis within the World Bank?

DR: Basically it’s an initiative that started as an internal dialogue a couple of years ago. It comes more from the energy sector than from the water side but is trying to assess all forms of water use in energy processes. We want to really understand how different forms of energy and their technologies require water. There are many functions for water in energy productions. It isn’t just an issue of quantity, but also of quality, for example. Changing temperatures of water can impact ecosystems.

So the water unit started a discussion with our energy colleagues to find real cases where water was constraining development in the energy sector.

GB: How is Thirsty Energy working to implement integrated management and nexus thinking?

DR: Basically we work in countries where a) there is enough of a problem and b) enough of a clearly-stated demand from the energy sector. The initiative helps them understand the complexities of water. Our focus is more on the macro side. We look at long-term planning and ask questions like: are the energy plans feasible with current technologies and how does water fit into the plan? If there isn’t enough water, what measures do you take to curb water use and demand?

Initially we saw energy and low carbon plans taking a very simplistic view of the complexities of hydrological cycles, of potential competition and other risks that may arise. Based on this, we started engaging with countries where we think their perspective of water resources could cause problems in the very near future.

Right now we’re working in South Africa, China, and Morocco. In Morocco there’s a lot of interest it has a very large and ambitious renewable energy expansion plan. However, there isn’t a lot of consideration on if water will be available or how competition from other sectors like agriculture or urban/municipal use will affect this expansion.

GB: It’s interesting that the initiative is seeking better understanding and management of water for energy as opposed to energy for water but is sounds like it was a strategic decision. What made you start with this aspect of the nexus?

DR: Yes. It took probably a year to define that. We were looking at the water-energy-food nexus as a whole. For us, the main challenge is how do you look at this problem, and actually try to influence major economic sectors in the way that they’re planning and investing? The more you add the more complex it is to tackle. So we said, okay, we need an entry point. And that entry point for us is the energy sector. We’re trying to ensure that we can influence the way the energy sector thinks about water. And then we also have a component in which we try to look at trade-offs across different sectors.

So we don’t ignore food and industry and other uses, but you have to have an entry point where you develop and implement analytical tools. From here, we can assess the supply and demand side of both water and energy. But as said, it’s very complex. We analyze the water and energy sectors and reach outcomes based on the assessments. If conclusions drawn from an assessment is something like the irrigation practices aren’t using a lot of water, then the analysis is finished. But if instead, the assessment brings to light increasing demands on the side of energy that may impact other sectors’ water allocations, then we implement techniques and examine trade-offs looking for a solution.

But even trying to get the energy and water actors to talk to each other is quite complex. So we’re trying to be very pragmatic and operational about our approaches.

GB: What would the ideal planning process look like? Who is involved, what factors are considered, how are decisions being made?

DR: What we’ve seen is that in most of the energy planning frameworks, there’s usually an assumption that the water that may be required by the sector is there. ‘We’ll be able to get it somehow’ is the line of thought. You get an average mean flow of water and make allocation decisions based on the assumption this supply won’t change.

What we’re trying to do slowly is change that, and say, ‘the availability of water can fluctuate based on resource flows every year causing supply to vary’. In some cases you will have water in certain basins that have been fully allocated. In certain years you might have extreme events a severe drought or flood. It becomes an issue of being much more realistic about the costs and the physical constraints of the resource for a major economic sector like energy.

GB: Do you have any examples of that approach working in practice?

DR: Very few countries have done this. We’re actually very limited in actual practice. The closest that you get is South Africa’s integrated resource planning framework about 10 years ago. The framework was limited in how it approached water resources. Basically, it included water as a necessary piece of energy production but didn’t account for water scarcity or stress that may occur and impact development. What we’re doing in South Africa is altering the energy model to incorporate the constraints of water at the basin level.

GB: I assume you’re working with both the public and the private sector. How does the private sector approach these issues and in what way are you engaging with them?

DR: We have a private sector reference group. We have partners like Electricite, Alstom and Veolia in France and Abengoa in Spain-all keen on examining the nexus. Obviously they look at it from a perspective of potential investment risk. What they are realizing also is that nowadays it’s very important for them to understand the broader context. If you decide to invest in a particular plant, you have to go way beyond what happens to that particular site. The private sector understands how you have to look larger. Potential problems within the basin, like effluent discharge, could impose additional costs even if it isn’t happening at the plant site.

And at the same time the private sector does have very good experience in building and operating plants and businesses. The idea is that with this collaboration, they can help us understand how the efficiency and consumption patterns of technologies are determined by location and climate conditions among other factors. They also have a clear understanding of existing and future challenges regarding resource constraints.

GB: So what are your plans in the coming year or two? What can we expect to see happening?

DR: The initiative was launched in January so we’re fairly new. And in the next year, we’ll be focusing on delivering results from the countries we’re working in. We started the work in South Africa we talked about. We’re starting work in China with the national energy agency to incorporate water constraints into the new national five-year energy plan for 2016-2020.

We’re also starting to provide assistance in Morocco with a water and energy utility there, which is a new merger of institutions. It’s very interesting. Our role is to present analytical tools that demonstrate the benefits-including financial gains- of integrated management.

Essentially, we’re meant to provide an array of processes and methods that can move the nexus approach from “blah blah blah” at the global level to real implementation that affects resource management and investment decisions.

 

Governors In Rainforest Nations Continue To Step Up On Deforestation. Will The Rest Of The World Follow?

 

12 August 2014 | RIO BRANCO, Brazil | Indonesia’s largest cash crop is palm oil. In Brazil, it’s soybeans. Those two crops are driving deforestation in both countries, yet governors from oilseed-dependent states in both countries have vowed to slash deforestation if funding for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) materializes.

Thirteen of them on Monday launched the Rio Branco Declaration, which is a clear commitment to reduce deforestation in their states by 80% between now and 2020. That commitment, however, is contingent on developed countries delivering on their own promises to step up funding both market-based and non-market-based to engineer a shift to sustainable land-use practices built in part on support for indigenous agriculture.

The declaration was signed at the 8th Annual Meeting of the Governors’ Climate & Forests (GCF) Task Force here. The GCF is a collaboration among 22 states and provinces from Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Spain, and the United States. Three additional Mexican states Tabasco, Quintana Roo and Jalisco are expected to join this week. Governors from other GCF member states say they will also sign the declaration.

“GCF members come from different provinces and countries, but we have a common goal to protect forests and build sustainable environments for improved livelihoods for all both now and into the future, said Governor A. Teras Narang of the Indonesian state of Central Kalimantan. “That future is now.

The REDD Factor

Narang’s country, Indonesia, is attempting to halt deforestation by shifting palm-oil development from forested lands to degraded lands a daunting task akin to moving the farms of the US Midwest to the plains of Texas. It amounts to the largest voluntary land-swap in history, and the government aims to use REDD finance to achieve it, while also engaging the demand side of the equation by working with companies willing to re-engineer their supply chains to avoid deforestation.

“Only standing forests are capable of removing greenhouse gases such as CO2 from our atmosphere, helping to reduce global warming, said Governor Dr. Cornelis MH, a signatory to the declaration and Governor of the Indonesian state of West Kalimantan. “Performance-based incentives or assistance from donor countries to support REDD+ programs and low emissions development will not only rehabilitate forests but support livelihoods among forest-dependent communities€both small-holder farmers and indigenous communities.

 Indigenous leaders, conservationists, and private-sector actors meet on the sidelines of the GCF meeting in Brazil

Indigenous leaders, conservationists, and private-sector actors meet on the sidelines of the GCF meeting in Brazil.

Edwin Vasquez is the leader of one of those communities, the Huitoto People of Peru, and as Coordinator General of COICA (Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indí­genas de la Cuenca Amazí³nica, Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin), he represents nearly 400 other indigenous communities across the entire Amazon Basin.

“Humanity is in grave danger over the destruction of the Amazonia the climate regulator of the planet, he said. “The 5,000 indigenous communities continue to protect the forests and preserve our cultures and the world, as we have done for thousands of years. We are the proprietors of 210 million hectares, covering 25% of the Amazon, which calls for an urgent proposal Indigenous Amazonia for Humanity, a $210 million project addressing the fact that climate funds have not reached our communities.

The Declaration

The declaration aims to put the GCF on the world stage, and it invites the international community and partner organizations to work with the GCF to develop clear and transparent mechanisms for securing and delivering performance-based benefits to forest-dependent communities, smallholders, and indigenous peoples.

“For the last 6 years the GCF has been the source of incredible innovation that is now ready for the world stage, said Dan Nepstad, Executive Director of Earth Innovation Institute. “If the GCF states and provinces decide in Rio Branco to reduce 80% of deforestation by 2020, this means 4 billion tons of avoided CO2 emissions on top of the 3 billion tons of emissions already avoided.

Now, he says, it’s up to the rest of us to step up.

“For the 2020 commitment to become real, the GCF will need the support of companies, donors and investors, and a strong commitment to channel benefits to forest-based communities, said Nepstad. “All of the pieces are coming together for this to happen in the coming months.

California Key

On the buy-side, the US state of California is considering the inclusion of REDD offsets in its cap-and-trade program. The state played a leadership role in the early days of the GCF, and it remains a key driver.

“Without action to reduce emissions from the deforestation of tropical forests, we are missing one of the keys to mitigating climate change, said California Air Resources Board Chairman Mary Nichols. “We think the sector-based offset crediting approach being evaluated for jurisdiction-wide programs, like the one in Acre, is the next frontier for California’s carbon offset program.

 

Additional resources

Results-Based Finance: Breakthrough Or Backslide?

 

4 August 2014 | The United States, the United Kingdom and Norway made headlines in December when they put $280 million on the table to save endangered rainforests. The real news, however, wasn’t the dollar amount, but the distribution mechanism.

Dubbed the “Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL), the mechanism funnels the $280 million into sustainable agriculture practices, but it ties the exact dollars to the tons of carbon dioxide stored in forests saved by the shift to sustainable agriculture.

Technically, since the payments are denominated in tons of carbon dioxide emissions from reduced deforestation and forest degradation, they are REDD payment. But they aren’t offsets, which means donor countries can’t write the reductions off against their own greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, they’re an example of a new breed of “results-based finance (RBF) that aims to tie development aid to measurable outcomes using methodologies that are less rigorous than methodologies developed for offsetting but more rigorous than old-fashioned aid payments — at least in theory. For now, RBF seems to resonate with the traditional environmental community in ways that offsets haven’t, in part because RBF neutralizes the anti-market contingent and eliminates accusations that donors are “buying their way out of their obligations to reduce emissions.

The advantages of this streamlined approach are clear, but so is the downside: namely, that RBF doesn’t incorporate anywhere near the kind of carbon-accounting rigor that voluntary carbon programs do. Proponents argue that such rigor is only necessary if you’re offsetting emission-reductions against industrial emissions, and they point out that many emerging RBF programs are designed to build capacity for offsetting down the road.

Because it’s easier to implement RBF than it is to develop market-based REDD, RBF provides more predictable (but perhaps less lucrative) long-term financing than offsetting does. In so doing, it offers an income stream that receiving countries can borrow against today, says Rupert Edwards, Senior Finance and Carbon Advisor for the Forest Trends Public Private Co-Finance Initiative.

“Financing instruments like Jurisdictional REDD+ Bonds, with an ambition to operate at scale, can harness international climate finance to support developing countries¢ own efforts, then in turn link to global demand for sustainable commodities and therefore support a truly integrated landscape approach that could be transformational in overcoming costs or barriers that stand in the way of reduced deforestation, resilient ecosystems, improved livelihoods, and sustainable agriculture production, he wrote in March.

But there are plenty of downsides as well. In addition to the lack of rigor compared to offsets, RBF lacks the framing aspect that REDD provides. Specifically, while RBF provides a way to measure the good that funding provides, REDD explicitly drew attention to the fact that indigenous and traditional communities provide an ecosystem service. They are not just receiving developed-world largesse; they’re earning developed-world income by delivering a more stable climate. That’s a powerful message and it’s one that could be lost if RBF becomes ascendant.

How We Got Here

Carbon offsets changed the game of environmental finance two-fold: first, they shifted the frame of reference from philanthropy to payments for ecosystem services, and second, they narrowed the focus from nebulous payments for doing good to concrete investments based on the measurable success of projects. In that sense, carbon offsetting is not an alternative to results-based finance, but a subset.

Offset-like mechanisms have been around for decades and some would argue for centuries. The US Clean Air Act of 1990 provided the immediate precursor to carbon offsetting. That law put a cap on the amount of sulfur and nitrogen oxides (SOx and NOx) that industry can pump into the air, but it let the private sector identify the most efficient way of meeting that cap. Long before that, however, the United States allowed the use of mitigation banks to deal with biodiversity and water issues.

Unlike these precursors, the Kyoto Protocol attracted the interest of global private companies, both as sellers and buyers of carbon offsets. It did so by having global scope, and by standardizing the measurements, reporting and verification (MRV) of credits through the first global environmental credit program: the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM opened the doors to private carbon emissions offsetting projects at a global-scale instead of remaining concentrated with the limited efforts of NGOs and donor agencies.

By 2008, the mechanism seemed to be succeeding, at least on the carbon front. Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) were trading at $20 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent; investment was pouring into greenhouse gas projects; and people were looking to expand the mechanism beyond carbon.

Comparing Apples to Oranges?

Soon, the race was on to create a global mechanism for conserving biodiversity and promoting good stewardship of water resources, but anyone looking to expand this model past carbon ran into an immediate problem.

“Water isn’t carbon, explained Sascha Lafeld, CEOof carbon project developer First Climate, at the Gold Standard Foundation’s 2014 conference in March a sentiment repeated throughout the day by other water experts.

Carbon is unique in that it’s an easily-measured unit that transcends boundaries. A project that removes 200 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere in China benefits the atmosphere everywhere in the world by 200 tonnes.

Water doesn’t work that way. For one, water is limited by its geographical area and the size of the catchment. Second, water is fluid (in more ways than one): it’s not a discrete, measurable unit like carbon. Biodiversity, community participation and other development goals are even harder to quantify much less measure results.

The Rise of Co-Benefits

With these and other challenges, the idea of financing non-carbon services through results-based finance largely fell out of favor. Instead, proponents sought to piggyback on voluntary carbon standards. By tacking on best-practices for water management, conservation and community involvement within existing carbon projects, projects could be rewarded for having these extensive “co-benefits while still using carbon as a baseline.

Voluntary standards like SOCIALCARBON, the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, Plan Vivo, the REDD+ Social and Environmental Standards and W+ Standard have risen in popularity among buyers looking to impact more than just carbon in these past few years. Suppliers have consistently added these standards, and some buyers have shown support by paying above-average prices.

Although that willingness has been inconsistent, according to the State of Voluntary Carbon Markets report, co-benefits seemed to offer a viable if imperfect compromise.

Many Eggs, One Basket

That compromise, however, left the price of water and biodiversity dependent on the price of carbon offsets. When that price began to slide from post-2008 highs, it left biodiversity and water proponents in the lurch. They started looking for alternatives.

“You know I used to think that carbon was the way that you could save rainforests, where biodiversity got a free ride on a carbon story, says New Zealand carbon developer Sean Weaver, of Carbon Partnership. “But I’m starting to think that the reverse now: that carbon might have to get a free ride on the back of looking after biodiversity and rainforests because carbon has become so unpopular.

Market participants have started to revisit the past debates, but the question remains: how can results-based finance be applied to nebulous benefits that don’t lend themselves to quantification?

The possible solutions follow along a spectrum, best exemplified by the approaches enshrined in two conferences in the last half-year: the Center for International Forestry Research’s (CIFOR) Global Landscapes Forum and the Gold Standard Foundation’s conference “The Future of Results Based Finance Measuring Environment and Social Impacts Beyond Carbon.

A Landscapes Approach

The term “landscapes may have as many definitions as there are trees in the world, but the big takeaway from last year’s meeting is twofold: that carbon should be viewed as only a facet within a more holistic, systems-based approach, and that high-level institutions like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the World Bank, and other institutions are willing to pay for innovative financing using this approach.

The $280-million ISFL was unveiled during those talks, offering aid agencies a way to adopt the concept of carbon-based payments without the offsetting element a tweak that frees them from the rigorous and costly verification and validation process. In this way, the ISFL initiative is a hybrid of old-school carbon monitoring and baselines mixed with a decidedly non-carbon focus.

RBF for Big and Small Players

It’s not just the large donors who have started exploring these options. As Josh Kempinski at Flora and Fauna International (FFI) noted, FFI is first and foremost a biodiversity organization. They have worked to develop REDD+ projects because the projects support biodiversity and have more available funding than traditional conservation. However, given a buyer who simply “wants to do good, they don’t necessarily need to sell carbon offsets. As long as their projects use monitoring, benefits-sharing and “all the elements that make a REDD project a REDD project  it still has the same structure, just not necessarily transacting a carbon credit.

Moving completely away from carbon is the VCA Platform, which has developed Verified Conservation Areas. Instead of a commodities approach, which trades tangible offsets like carbon, VCAs resemble real estate markets: the areas are all about location, location, location. Carbon comes second or not at all. However, without a carbon accounting framework the question of methodologies rises back up.

Frank Vorhies, manager of VCA, agrees that it’s a problem that isn’t easily solved.

“Nobody’s ever done a baseline assessment, he says.“Conservation International’s never done it, UNEP’s never done it, or the IUCN. The conservation community has never even provided the tools to do proper area-based management. When it comes to actually measuring performance, we don’t have any agreed metrics to do a baseline assessment, let alone performance measurements.

Recognizing this challenge, the VCA standard instead relies on the making innovation as it goes by only requiring those involved with project on the ground to have quantifiable metrics and that they be public and transparent. In this way, the standard hopes to develop best practice guidelines.

Imitation is the Best Form of Flattery

On one end of the spectrum are professionals seeking to replicate the voluntary carbon market. Where past efforts failed, these professionals are looking to succeed through sharing knowledge and partnerships.

One such case is the Water Benefit Partners (WBP), a public-private partnership between carbon offset developer First Climate, the Swiss Development Cooperation and the Gold Standard. In this initiative, water experts are trying to mimic the transparency, credibility and accessibility of carbon offset projects through the creation of units of water.

Despite the technical difficulties associated with quantifying water, this partnership currently pilots a certification process mimicking that of carbon markets. Projects following this standard would be able to issue Water Benefit Certificates (WBC) independent units representing specific water benefits to private companies in order to finance the work. The Gold Standard’s Water Programme Manager Brendan Smith described how companies have interest in water, but,“we are not Coca Cola. A lot of companies want to get engaged in the water space but don’t have the means. [With WBCs] they don’t have to produce their own project now. It aims to launch at World Water Week in Stockholm, which runs from August 31 to September 5.

The Gold Standard has also worked to develop its own landscapes approach but unlike the holistic approaches described previously, this version would certify water, biodiversity and carbon as separate forests assets. So far, the standard has consulted over one hundred stakeholders and recently announced that they’ve become a member of the Forest Stewardship Council, a move designed to strengthen ties following a 2012 Memorandum of Understanding with FSC. They’ve also developed an agreement with the Fair Trade Associate, also in 2012. The three organizations plan to work together to harmonize common definitions (like “smallholders and “pesticides) in order to simplify certification under multiple standards.

While the Land Use and Forestry (LUF) team at the Gold Standard is still working on creating all of the certified assets, eventually, “There could be a carbon area [of a forest] for carbon credits, and then in another area, you get a biodiversity area. That’s how we envision the future, that you have a landscape with different activities but also with different ecosystem values explains Moritz Vohrer, Technical Director of the Gold Standard Foundation. The LUF teams has already created a carbon standard for land use and forestry last year; water is expected to follow later this year and biodiversity in 2015.

With all these potential methodologies in the works, financing remains an important incentive to translate ideas into real results. The $280 million opened doors for financing landscapes at last year’s COP. Perhaps it will inspire additional governments to finance similar schemes this year.

 

Additional resources

Read the full Forest Trends REDD+ Bonds proposal here.

Wrestling With Orangutans: The Genesis Of The Rimba-Raya REDD Project

This article is the fourth in a series. You can also view the previous installment here.

 

24 July 2014 | As a former collegiate wrestler,  Todd Lemons knew the look of an eager athlete ready to grapple, and  these orangutans had that look in spades.

He encountered them in the forest behind Orangutan Foundation International‘s (OFI) orphanage in Pangkalan Bun, on the island of Borneo. All were  adolescents who had witnessed the murder of one or both of their parents, and all of them owed their lives to the woman escorting him: OFI founder Birute Galdikas.

Instinctively, Lemons crouched to engage the first one to step forward. They waddled around in circles, each looking for an opening in the other’s defense. Finally, the orangutan lunged; Lemons intercepted; others loped into the fray. Soon, at the age of 40, Lemons was engulfed in a gaggle of rowdy red apes, all of them rolling and wrestling and – yes – laughing.

“It was at once the most amazing experience of my life and one of the most heart-wrenching,” he says. “Amazing because they’re better than us in many ways: They’re generous and intelligent, but they’re also naí¯ve, and they have an amazing sense of humor.” Heart-wrenching, he adds, because they don’t belong in an orphanage.

 Todd Lemons and an orphaned infant

Todd Lemons and an orphaned infant.

Emotional Engagement

Lemons had flown from Hong Kong to Borneo just hours earlier, and that first spontaneous encounter with orangutans provided what he calls “an early point-of-no-return” – his first emotional engagement with the orangs of the hutan – the “people of the forest” in the languages of both Indonesia and Malaysia. It also provided Galdikas with an opportunity to learn a bit about this hyperactive businessman who’d called her just a week earlier with a crazy plan to save the forest and had now shown up on her doorstep unannounced.

“I realized then that Todd loves the orangutans,” says Galdikas. “He still gets down and wrestles with them and rolls around like they do – it’s the most wonderful thing.”

Lemons would return to the orphanage scores of times in the coming years – sometimes alone, and sometimes with his Indonesian partner, Rusmin Widjajam, or with his American partner, Jim Procanik. Often they’d come for business, but just as often they’d come for respite from the David and Goliath struggle they found themselves enmeshed in as they struggled to save the forest.

“In my darkest hours throughout our epic five-year battle, I went back to the care center many times to strengthen my resolve,” says Lemons.

Muddling Through It

Impressed by the way Lemons connected with the orangutans, Galdikas asked him to accompany her on a boat ride to Camp Leakey, the rescue facility she built in the early 1970s with the support of her mentor, primatologist Louis Leakey. Lemons soon found himself teetering along underwater balance beams that served as a sort of jungle boardwalk in the dry season – which this wasn’t.

“I was surprised at the grace with which Birute navigated the slippery, unseen boards knee-deep,” he says. “I kept slipping off and spent half my time up to my chest in swamp water.” It was, he says, a visceral re-connection with the elements he’d always sought as a child but only found intermittently as an adult.

“I got my start in the Amazon, but I’d spent the past five years of my life manufacturing widgets in China,” he says. “Now I was back in the forest with a meaningful purpose, with wild-born orangutans, and with a world-renowned scientist who had made the cover of National Geographic twice.”

It was, he thought, a life his grandfather would approve of.

How the World Works

He and Galdikas spent the evening at Camp Leaky under a solitary solar-powered light bulb – in a setting that Lemons describes as “epic”.

 The Trimates: Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Birute Galdikas..

The Trimates: Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Birute Galdikas.

“Up to then, I had looked at this from an academic and economic viewpoint,” he says. “Now, it was taking on profound philosophical tones. I began to feel like I could really make a difference in the world that my kids would inherit.”

Galdikas, however, still wasn’t sold. She’d hosted more than her share of wide-eyed idealists and overconfident businessmen over the years, and very few of them ended up doing anything of value for the orangutans. With the Seruyan Forest disappearing just over the horizon, she needed someone who not only wanted to make a difference but had both the smarts to get it done and the fortitude to see it through.

“I could feel Todd’s sincerity, but I still thought he was naí¯ve,” says Galdikas. “Nobody who’s not a native-born person will ever understand a new country completely.”

Lemons begs to differ. In his mind, Galdikas is more Indonesian than anything, even though she grew up in Canada. “She sometimes calls me ‘Mr. Todd’ – the way Indonesians call someone ‘Pak’ so-and-so,” he says. “She loves this country the way certain immigrants to the United States love their adopted home.”

She lectured Lemons on the value that Indonesians place on politeness, hierarchy and rules; and she warned him that the brashness that gets you to the top in California would come across as oafish on Kalimantan, the Indonesian word for Borneo. Lemons told Galdikas about his career in forestry, and how he’d navigated the cultures of Latin America and China. He said he was tired of the rat-race and was looking forward to working with conservationists and other “civilized” folk.

Her response took him aback.

“She read me the riot act,” says Lemons. “She told me that compared to doing business in China, doing conservation in Indonesia was a snake pit.”

Galdikas told him not to idealize the world of conservation. “There are some wonderful people in this field – some of the best I’ve ever met,” she says. “But I told him that when you start dealing with some of the big conservation groups, the fundraising tail is wagging the conservation dog.”

What’s more, she added, those dogs only see one pie of funding. “They’re all fighting over that pie behind the scenes,” she says.

Lemons countered that REDD would change all that because it would make the pie bigger.

A New Conservation Paradigm

REDD, he said, was part of a whole new economic paradigm built on the premise that our economy depends on our ecology, and that good land stewardship delivers a higher economic value than palm oil does. While some blamed market mechanisms for all the world’s ills, Lemons saw markets as a powerful but amoral tool that sometimes needed direction. REDD, he said, directed the power of the market into conservation.

“I loved what he was saying, but I wasn’t convinced it would work,” she says. “I knew there’d be opposition from people who don’t like markets, and so did he, but I also knew that a lot of the traditional conservationists would see him as treading on their turf.” As an anthropologist, she told Lemons, she’d learned a few things about turf wars, and she warned him it wouldn’t be pretty.

“It was an amazing lecture, about NGO culture and business culture and about Indonesian culture and North American culture,” says Lemons. “She was married to a Dyak chief, and as an anthropologist who straddles two cultures, she really understands the cosmology of the Indonesian people and how that cultural and historical worldview shapes the way they behave.”

 BirutÄ— Galdikas, Siswei, and Todd Lemons share a rambutan lunch.

BirutÄ— Galdikas, Siswei, and Todd Lemons share a rambutan lunch.

As a Canadian, she also understood where Lemons was coming from, and she pointed out how his own cultural and historical worldview conditioned him to seek consistency, while Javanese cosmology embraced paradox.

“She gave me amazing advice early on that I didn’t even understand at the time,” he says. “But it rang clear and true as I found myself immersed in a very complex and foreign culture.”

Still, it was the ideological differences between the business world and the nonprofit world that he found most challenging – differences that he says he should have seen by the way REDD had evolved.

Chasms and Camaraderie

Long before there was REDD and its efforts to pay for the protection of trees based on their carbon content, there was the timber trade, which paid for forests based on their “merchantable” wood content. In order to pay for that merchantable wood, they had to measure it, and they became incredibly adept at doing so. After all, millions of dollars were at stake on every transaction, and they wanted to get it right. Lemons came from that world, and when he heard of REDD, he assumed the powers-that-be would just adopt the calculus of timber to save the forest rather than destroy it. He was wrong.

Galdikas, meanwhile, was beginning to think Lemons might actually be able to get the job done – not because of anything he said, but because of something he did.

“As we sat around barefoot on the floor with the Camp Leakey staff, Todd immediately picked up on the cultural taboo of exposing the bottom of ones feet to the other guests,” says Galdikas. “Also, they have a custom that when somebody in the group gets up, they kind of hunch over so as not to tower over the other guests.”

Like the ubiquitous Western handshake, the Indonesian hunch is a modern custom with traditional roots: the Dyaks of Indonesia always kept their heads lower than that of the king’s, and today it’s just good manners. Galdikas says that Lemons picked up on that right away, too. “That’s when I realized he might have a chance at navigating the complexities of Indonesian society,” she says.

But Lemons had questions of his own.

The Peat Bog Wild Card

His questions weren’t about Galdikas – after all, she was a public figure, and he’d researched her thoroughly – but he’d been spooked by those scraggly trees that dominated the landscape. “I came from a forestry background, and I knew those trees didn’t hold enough carbon to cover the cost of measuring them,” he says.

He had a list of criteria that would have to be met if this thing was going to work commercially: the forest would have to be in danger (check). It would have to be home to an endangered species (check). It would have to contain massive amounts of carbon (question mark).

Lemons knew that Kalimantan’s carbon was locked in peat bogs, because those bogs made headlines around the world when the El Nií±o draught lit them up  in 1997 and 2003. On satellite images, those bogs looked like smoke bombs, and scientists estimated they pumped 200 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere  in 1997 alone. That translates into 734 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the air, or the equivalent of 180 million extra cars on the road.

“I know there are peat forests on Kalimantan,” Lemons told Galdikas. “But where are they?”

“We’ve been knee-deep in one all day,” she laughed. “Well, I’ve been knee-deep; you’ve been neck-deep – but it’s the same forest, just on the other side of the park.”

And that, says Lemons, is when it all finally fell into place. “Somehow, I had stumbled into a peat swamp forest that provided a critical buffer zone to a national park, home to one of maybe four remaining forests with high-density relic populations of wild orangutans,” he says. “My potential partner was a conservation rock star, and if there was ever a forest that met the definition of being under ‘imminent threat’, this was it.”

This forest, he told her, had environmental value, and REDD made it possible to convert that to economic value. Economically, he said, it wasn’t worth more alive than dead, but it was worth enough alive that they could use REDD to save it.

“We’ve been trying to save the Seruyan for seven years, and I’m out of options,” she said. “They’ve given it to palm oil, and in five years, it will be gone. If the entire eastern border goes to palm oil, they’ll deforest half the national park. They’ve already illegally deforested 2,000 hectares of the northern quadrant.”

She paused.

“OK,” she said. “Let’s do it. If you can save this forest, you’ll make a believer out of me.”

Next Installment: Birute visits the Minister of Forestry while Todd dives into the calculus of REDD.

 

Verified Conservation Areas: A Real-Estate Market For Biodiversity?

 

21 August 2014 | There are markets for silver and there are markets for houses, and it doesn’t take a genius to see the difference between the two: an ounce of silver is an ounce of silver, interchangeable with any other ounce of the same quality, but the value of a house or any piece of property can fluctuate with the color of the flooring.

Carbon markets resemble silver markets because a ton of carbon dioxide has the same impact on the environment regardless of whether it comes from a smokestack in Germany or a forest fire in Brazil. That made it possible to create a global transparent marketplace designed to support sustainable development and identify the most efficient ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Biodiversity markets, however, have always been local because habitat is often unique and irreplaceable. A road that damages a bit of sage grouse habitat in the United States might be able to make good by restoring or preserving habitat of equal or greater environmental benefit in the same ecosystem, but even that approach has only a narrow band of effectiveness. “You can’t offset an extinction, as Joshua Bishop of WWF Australia once said.

As a result, most biodiversity banking is confined to the developed world, which has the resources if not always the political will to balance development with conservation. Most degradation, however, is taking place in the developing world, which has massive development needs and little resources for conservation.

That got Frank Vorhies thinking: While we can’t offset biodiversity loss in one part of the world by saving habitat in another, could we somehow introduce the elements of transparency and accountability that work so well in carbon into conservation? And if we do, might this free up more capital for proactively supporting environmentally valuable areas, regardless of their location?

These questions, posed in 2008, launched an evolutionary process that drew on expertise from across the biodiversity spectrum and led to the formulation of something called “Verified Conservation Areas, which are areas with specific conservation needs that have been identified and specific conservation actions that have been defined. As envisioned, many will be areas that haven’t yet been degraded, but that are under some sort of threat that can be identified and then either avoided or minimized through a process that is audited and transparent.

The areas and their action plans will be listed on the VCA Platform, much as houses are listed on a real estate board. Nearly 20 VCAs are currently being considered, and the first one is expected to be approved later this year.

Real Estate and Habitat

Vorhies, who set up the economics and business programs at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), says that to understand VCAs, you have to look at the real estate market.

“People will tell you what the going rate is for apartments to rent or to buy but each has got a different storyline, a different location, and that’s what biodiversity is like, he says. “Every bit of nature, every landscape on the planet, has a different set of issues and perspectives and legacies and threats and challenges.

Intuitively, we all know this, and the conservation community has long funneled money into protected areas around the world, but that money hasn’t flowed in a standardized way that makes it possible to determine its impact, and it rarely finds it way to areas that are environmentally important but unprotected. Contrast this with carbon, where there are extensive rules both guidelines and methodologies that must be followed, starting with establishing a baseline to measure any changes over time, and where the targets are explicitly those areas that aren’t already protected by law, in the case of forest carbon.

Where’s the Guidance?

“Nobody’s providing practical guidance on area-based biodiversity assessment, says Vorhies, explaining that to improve the conservation status of areas, we need to know baselines on ecosystems and their services, species and their habitats, and both the conservation and sustainable use of an area’s biodiversity.

“CI (Conservation International) produced a rapid biodiversity assessment tool, but it only looks at wild species, he explains. “CI, IUCN, FFI (Fauna & Flora International) and others are helping companies with biodiversity baselines, but these studies are generally not public.

What’s missing, he says, are publicly-available tools for developing conservation baselines that a critical mass of people can agree on.

2008: Why Reinvent the Wheel?

When the initiative first launched in 2008, the carbon markets were in full swing. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the first global trading platform for environmental credits, was backed by the auspices of the United Nations, and Europe’s compliance emissions trading program meant that companies were eager to participate.

“So the folks over in the biodiversity world were saying, Look at those guys in the carbon world  they’re getting a stack of money. Why can’t we create a Green Development Mechanism (GDM) for biodiversity financing?

Thus the idea of a GDM was born, but it was a name without structure; and, as Vorhies later learned, that name was as much of a hindrance as a help in securing finance.

What’s in a Name?

When he approached different countries and investors for support of the project, Vorhies encountered two types of people: those who liked the CDM and those who didn’t. On top of that, he found that both camps read too much into the acronym and, for better or worse, they both saw it as more akin to the CDM than it was.

“So we had to change the name, he explains ruefully, “After the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in 2010, we changed it to the Green Development Initiative, or GDI, to get rid of the CDM-GDM association because it was driving us nuts.

2010: Refining and Redefining

That letter change effectively stopped all comparisons between the two, but the initial problem remained: what would the initiative stand for? All Vorhies knew at the time was that he didn’t want it to be like the CDM.

“It was quite clear that it wasn’t a commodity market; biodiversity isn’t a commodity, he says. “The best market we could use was a property market to think of biodiversity as something that you would recognize, trade and indeed celebrate like you do in property management.

With a property market, such as apartments, each location has unique attributes: some might be close to public transportation; others may have a pool on the rooftop; and others might have a view. But aside from these additional features, all apartments can be described in terms of size, number of bedrooms, and other constant features.

Similarly, every landscape will have characteristics that can’t be replicated just as they will also have basic qualities, like size and ecosystem, which can be described anywhere around the world. Taken as a sum of these descriptors, every conservation hectare has a story and a price.

This holistic approach led to another key difference between the GDI and CDM, at a time when the latter began to crash in the carbon world. The initiative wouldn’t be limited to offsets, although offsets could be one of many options in a developer’s landscape management plan.

“The offset’s only there for when you’ve gotten to the point of irreparable damage and can’t do anything else, he explains. “But to get to that point, you have to do a whole lot of good things: like avoid, minimize, and restore. And that’s the stuff that needs to be recognized, celebrated and financed through making conservation visible.

Good Deeds Unrewarded

Vorhies spoke from experience, having previously consulted Yemen LNG, a natural gas company building a new harbor to export gas over a coral reef ecosystem. The company tried to minimize its impact, and it even contacted IUCN to review its decision to relocate the coral nearby, away from where the piers needed to be. Vorhies says they spent large sums on this innovative technique but received no recognition for their efforts. With nothing of value to show their shareholders and no external driver to conform to, the company couldn’t justify its costs.

“Do you see the coral reefs? asked the company’s environment manager in 2011, explaining his conundrum. “No. Just leave them. We’ve now got to get on with our business.

Vorhies believes that if the company had to do a performance report every year, and had an accountable action plan, that would at least give the environment manager an opportunity to fundraise inside of the company for a biodiversity budget. Indeed, they had already spent a large amount on relocation, and it would not take nearly as much to manage and monitor the conservation of the corals. The company and its investors, could also be recognized publically for their in-situ conservation efforts.

2013: Visibility, Accountability and Marketability

By now, Vorhies had a solid set of criteria for a biodiversity mechanism that he thought would work, but the GDI acronym didn’t quite capture it. “You try to do an elevator speech with the initials GDI and people say, that sounds really good but what is it?

Thus, the Verified Conservation Area (VCA) Platform rose from its rejected predecessors to become the final name of the initiative for now and it came with the elevator pitch that fit the name.

The elevator pitch is this: the VCA Platform will provide visibility, accountability and marketability to project areas, but the specific improvements are up to the project developer.  A verified conservation area may then focus on carbon, water, or any other “benefit while, ideally, the central focus would be a cohesive landscape approach much as the landscapes approach that’s evolving in the carbon world, where carbon sequestration is seen as a proxy for good land management.

But how do you create a methodology that’s applicable in any ecosystem?

A Wing and a Toolkit

Recognizing this challenge, the VCA Platform instead relies on making innovation as it goes by only requiring those involved with the project on the ground to have quantifiable metrics and present them publicly and transparently. Armed only with the standard and a basic toolkit approach, VCA hopes to develop best practice guidelines in this way.

“When it comes to actually measuring performance, we don’t have any agreed metrics to do a baseline assessment, let alone performance measurements, Vorhies explained.

Instead, the toolkit provides the basic building blocks for designing a management plan requiring a baseline assessment, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis, and a concrete action plan. The latter goes onto the VCA Platform, with yearly updates including independent audits. Every year, an annual performance report will detail what exactly has happened in the area. Similar to an annual financial report, the audit will provide transparency about detailed activities in the area. Investors or donors could then go online, and look at actual projects before contributing.

2014: Building up the Brand

Despite the long journey from GDI to VCA Platform, the brand still needs greater recognition. For companies to buy into a new standard, they need assurance that the standard itself is credible. The VCA Platform doesn’t have that yet.

Currently, the platform has started a pilot program and has a mandate from two government agency donors the Swiss and the Dutch to coalesce all of these ideas into a solid business plan for scaling up This business plan is now being presented to potential investors in the platform itself seed capital to establish a new marketplace for verified conservation.

Already, there are a few protected areas (PAs) on the waiting list; even though those areas traditionally have a government mandate for conservation, they see the VCA as a way to state what they are delivering and as a way to raise funds. There are also areas on the other end of the spectrum: both private biodiversity restoration areas, including a rainforest in Brazil and a savannah wilderness in Mozambique, and projects linked to commodity supply chains or traditionally suspect sectors like mining and oil and gas. Yemen LNG, for example, has recently proposed to register its industrial harbor as a VCA.

Regarding working with extractive industries, Vorhies says, “I don’t see myself why mining can’t be just as responsible as the tourism which we run in our national parks in the U.S., with all the roads and hiking trails and the campgrounds and facilities required for tourists. With mining, they could come into a conservation area for 20-30 years and leave an endowment; whereas with tourism, when do we get rid of these people and what do they leave behind?

Similarly with agriculture, a field is often seen as having “destroyed conservation areas, yet Vorhies remains optimistic about their inclusion. This is evidenced by the growing use of sustainability standards for various commodities including coffee, cocoa, soy, and palm oil. The VCA Platform, however, brings a landscape level focus to sustainable agriculture which is of real interest to major food companies like Unilever.

“The VCA in that sense is not about recognizing that we’ve totally damaged this part of the world and therefore must pay. It’s more like saying this is where we are today and this is what we can do to make it better It isn’t a conservation story; it’s a process of improvement. That’s the idea. We’ve tried to move the language from compensation to good practice. If we want to conserve our planet, we need to create a market for delivering conservation.

Biodiversity Backers Continue Push For Convergence In June

New guidance from the Center for Biological Diversity aims to integrate biodiversity safeguards into sustainability standards while a study finds REDD+ isn’t delivering the positive outcome for wildlife as originally thought. Also, Ecosystem Marketplace continues to unfold its series on saving Indonesia’s forests and orangutan habitat from palm oil development.  

This article was originally posted in the Mit Mail newsletter. Click here to read the original.

21 July 2014 | When world-renowned primatologist Biruté Galdikas learned that palm oil company PT Best was about to destroy Borneo’s Seruyan Forest, she began frantically trying to raise money for her organization, the Orangutan Foundation International, in efforts to stop the slaughter of orangutans in the forest. One day, her phone rang.  

“I remember it clearly,” she says. “This man says he’s calling from Shanghai, China, and he won’t stop talking, won’t let me get a word in edgewise, and then he asks me – and I’ll never forget this – he asks me if there’s a forest that needs to be saved.”

 

The man’s name was Todd Lemons, a serial entrepreneur from the United States who’d grown up listening to his grandfather’s tales of his adventures in the Amazon and reading National Geographic. It was on the magazine’s October, 1975 cover that he first encountered Galdikas.

 

“He started going on and on about how trees capture carbon and people would pay us to save the trees to stop global warming, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, a carbon cowboy.'”

 

Still, something kept her on the phone. Maybe it was his knowledge of forestry. Or maybe it was just curiosity on her part. Whatever it was, when they hung up, she’d pegged him as sincere and knowlegeable about the timber trade – but naí¯ve about the rest of the world.

 

He called again about a week later, this time from his home in Hong Kong, and caught her on her way to Los Angeles International Airport.

 

“I was in a hurry,” Galdikas says. “So I told him that if he was serious, he’d have to come and visit me in in Pangkalan Bun.”

 

About a week after that, she heard a knock on her door. It was Lemons.

 

 

In this month’s Mitigation Mail, we highlight a new special reporting series from Ecosystem Marketplace that takes us deep into Indonesia’s forests, where biodiversity advocates, carbon financiers, and sustainable commodity certification developers are joining forces to save the country’s forests from clearing for palm oil.

 

It’s a signal of eco-markets’ maturation that cross-cutting stories like these are becoming more common. More than ever before, conservationists and entrepreneurs have a range of financing strategies and tools at their disposal to protect important places – consider how the Bethlehem Authority that manages the forested watershed of Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains recently struck a deal with Disney to sell forest carbon offsets from a 20,000-acre project. The authority estimates that the sale of offsets will bring in $140,000 to $170,000 annually, which it will use to improve the aging water system and protect the forest.


Of course, work needs to be done to make sure that all the benefits promised are actually being captured. An article this month from Mongabay finds that REDD+ projects aren’t delivering expected wildlife conservation outcomes. A step in the right direction is the CBD’s new guidance on integrating biodiversity safeguards into sustainability standards and certifications, discussed below.


It’s also been an…interesting month in the US wetland and conservation banking space – check out our Mitigation Roundup below for stories on a lawsuit over a South Carolina bank’s plan to convert freshwater wetlands to salt marsh, a proposal to sidestep mitigation requirements by raising and releasing lesser prairie chickens in Kansas, and the uncertain fate of blueberry general permits in Michigan.


Finally, if you enjoy your monthly MitMail, help us keep the lights on: consider making a small donation. As a not-for-profit organization, it’s our mission to provide top-notch, freely available information on environmental markets and conservation finance, and we rely on our supporters to be able to do so. Just $150 gets you a place of honor on our sidebar for a year. Click here to donate.

—The Ecosystem Marketplace Team

If you have comments or would like to submit news stories, write to us at [email protected].


EM Exclusives

Examples, dialogue, and clearer policy need in biodiversity offsetting

In early June, 280 individuals from 32 countries met in London at the To No Net Loss of Biodiversity and Beyond conference to discuss how to ensure that development is planned to achieve no net loss or preferably a net gain in biodiversity. They explored international experience and policy on no net loss and a net gain of biodiversity, and everyone was searching for practical solutions to reconcile development with environmental protection and social fairness.

 

“There is a real genuine interest in the topic of no net loss of biodiversity now,” says BBOP Director, Kerry ten Kate. “People want to discuss it and share ideas and hear different perspectives from around the world.” Many useful lessons were shared throughout the two days and recommendations sprang from every session. However, a number of cross-cutting, key issues emerged as major themes – including strengthening protections, clarifying policy, and considering offsets only within the context of a mitigation hierarchy.

Keep reading.

How a primatologist, an industrialist, and an ecosystem entrepreneur took on big palm oil and won

When world-renowned primatologist Biruté Galdikas learned that palm oil company PT Best was about to destroy Borneo’s Seruyan Forest, she thought all was lost. Then she met ecosystem entrepreneur Todd Lemons and industrialist Rusmin Widjajam. Here’s how they blended cutting-edge finance and old-fashioned moxie to outmaneuver Big Palm Oil and save the forest.


We all use palm oil every day, and nearly half the world’s supply comes from Indonesia – with devastating results for the country’s forests, wildlife, and the global climate. Fixing it is no easy matter.

Keep reading.


Mitigation News

Comment period extended for proposed rule clarifying CWA jurisdiction

Last month, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it’s extending the public comment period on a proposed rule clarifying jurisdiction over waters of the United States, until October 21, 2014. The proposed rule, developed by EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, aims to provide a consistent definition of the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act, after years of muddled interpretation and ad-hoc decision-making. The EPA says the extension is in response to the volume of comments already received and signs that the rule is not being interpreted as intended. “There’s a lot of concern among agricultural interests in their states and what the industry has read into it,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told reporters. “We need some time to get out there and, if need be, write the rule in a way so the intent is understood.”

Read the public notice.
Learn more about the proposed rule.

Study finds unequal balance between carbon stocks and species richness

While the primary objective of the market mechanism REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) is to reduce carbon emissions coming from forest loss, preserving vital habitat for wildlife was thought to be a valuable byproduct. However a new study found that forests rich in carbon that are being conserved through REDD+ don’t necessarily contain the same richness in wildlife. The mechanism may even propel species toward extinction. Research for the study took place in Antioquia, Colombia where researchers found deforestation activities simply moved from the fuller forests to the more sparse areas where a higher number of endemic species live. The study does note the overall success of REDD+ in reducing emissions and deforestation, but encourages a more comprehensive approach when selecting areas for protection.

Mongabay has coverage.

Mitigation roundup

Here’s what happened in the US mitigation world this month:

 

The first conservation bank in Santa Barbara County just opened its doors, with the 853-acre property offering credits for the threatened California tiger salamander.

 

In Colorado, the Summit Board of County Commissioners has asked the Army Corps of Engineers to exclude it from the proposed service area for a new wetland bank, citing elevation differences that would make inclusion inappropriate.

 

The US EPA says that a general permit for blueberry farming in regulated wetlands in Michigan violates section 404 of the Clean Water Act – meaning that mitigation requirements could come into play.

 

Biologists are raising eyebrows at Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s recent proposal that the state begin raising and releasing lesser prairie chickens – an idea first floated by energy companies looking for a way to avoid high mitigation fees for impacts to LPC habitat.

 

A lawsuit against a mitigation banker over his plans to convert rare freshwater wetlands in South Carolina to salt marsh habitat in order to sell bank credits has been dismissed, on the grounds that saltwater had already infiltrated the area.

 

A Diversion Authority in Cass County North Dakota has sticker stock from the $587,180 needed for mitigation of a ring dike projects – working out to $34,000 an acre.

 

CBD releases guidance on biodiversity safeguards for standards & certs

In June the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) released guidance on improving biodiversity and ecosystem services safeguards in voluntary standards and certifications. The document, part of CBD’s Technical Series, was written in collaboration with the UN Environment Program’s World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC). It aims to introduce standard-setting organizations to key concepts like the mitigation hierarchy or a ‘landscape approach’, and outline best practice for safeguards.

Learn more and get a copy of the guidance.

Australia deliberates over land offsets

A recent review of Australia’s offsetting policy has led the Senate’s environmental committee to recommend offsets only be used as a ‘last resort.’ Industries, such as mining, use offsets when damage to natural lands from development can’t be avoided. Advocates argue the mechanism acts as an integral method to preserve valuable land. But the Gladstone Bund Review questioned the management of offsets and if regulators had the capacity to ensure they’re being done properly. The government will review the committee’s report and decide what further action to take.

Read more from the Gladstone Observer.

EIP takes on big project restoring Louisiana wetlands with mitigation banking

Louisiana has lost an area of wetlands equivalent to the size of Delaware in the last 80 years. And while all wetlands provide valuable services, Louisiana’s coastal areas protect against the powerful hurricanes that pass through year after year, making restoring these marshes crucial to the state’s economy and prosperity. The private equity firm Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP) aims to deliver some much-needed restoration work and generate a profit while doing it. So far, the company has purchased over 16,000 acres of swampland along Louisiana’s coast to develop mitigation bank credits. Mitigation banking is a commonly-used method for offsetting development impacts – but normally on a much smaller scale. EIP’s project is on a whole new level in terms of scope and of ambition.

The New York Times has the story.

New protocol will act as natcap accounting guide for businesses

A new development from the Natural Capital Coalition (NCC), a platform promoting natural capital accounting, will add to the resources available to help the private sector shift away from ‘business as usual’ scenarios and towards sustainable development. The NCC is establishing the Natural Capital Protocol (NCP). The Protocol will be developed by two consortia made up of academics, businesses, financial institutions and NGOs – one led by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the other by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).


The WBCSD will work to create one framework that includes the many methodologies existing today on the impacts and dependencies companies have on and with nature. The IUCN consortium will translate the Protocol into sector-specific guides – one for apparel and another for food and beverage. In addition, the IUCN will lead pilot testing of the Protocol among businesses.

Read a press release.

Asking more of offsets in Madagascar

Research recently published in the Journal of Environmental Management suggests that Rio Tinto’s offset methodology for mining impacts in Madagascar could be strengthened. In particular, additionality of the offset may have been weak in places: “In Madagascar, Rio Tinto did not take into account the fact that the potential deforestation its offsetting project aimed to avoid was partly inflicted by the company itself, through road-building, arrival of migrant workers, and other factors,” writes the study’s author Malika Virah-Sawmy in a summary article.

 

Virah-Sawmy does not suggest that there is no place for offsets in conservation planning, but rather that scientific basis and transparency need to keep improving. Additionality and leakage in particular are “poorly dealt with in existing biodiversity offset projects – and as a result, they are much less effective than they could be.”

Read more at Phys.org.

Better biodiversity conservation more costly – but needed, study says

Four years ago, the Center for Biological Diversity laid out new goals to prevent biodiversity loss that envisioned expanding the area of land protected in order to halt the extinction of species. But these new objectives are expensive and achieving them is proving difficult. A study released in the journal PLOS Biology found many protected areas are conserving land with little economic value and failing to protect the biodiversity on more valuable ground.

 

“Our study shows that existing protected areas are performing very poorly in terms of protecting the world’s most threatened species,” said Dr. Oscar Venter, lead author of the study. “This is concerning, as protected areas are meant to act as strongholds for vulnerable species, which clearly they are not.” And while Venter concedes making improvements to biodiversity conservation is expensive, he also says that small increases in cost can have a large impact on preservation.

Learn more.

Delivering environmental context for businesses with natural capital and ecosystem services

In order for businesses to properly measure their natural risks and prospects, Sissel Wage of BSR, the nonprofit based on business sustainability, says natural capital, ecosystem services and green development must continue to move into actual practice. Each can drive investments towards the natural infrastructure the private sector depends on to conduct business. And environmental measures without these functioning parts can lead to misguided actions and unintended consequences.

Read more at The Guardian.

Florida panther payments would give endangered species a little breathing room

A program proposed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service would compensate Florida landowners for protecting panther habitat. The endangered Florida panther is not particularly popular with ranchers and landowners, but wildlife officials hope that incentives will do the trick. The program would pay landowners around $22 an acre to maintain habitats. “It’s really about buying us some time,” Kevin Godsea, manager for the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge tells The Guardian. “We are never going to be able to purchase all the land that we are going to need to recover the species.”

 

Get the full story.

How does media coverage of climate change affect biodiversity?

The topic of climate change gets the majority of media attention when it comes to environmental issues. But researchers at the University of Kent are urging that a growing public interest in climate should be used to leverage more support and action towards other important areas like biodiversity conservation. Kent released a study attempting to determine if climate change coverage has deflected attention away from biodiversity. Essentially, the study found biodiversity coverage -and funding from organizations like the World Bank – has remained consistent, while reporting and funding on climate change has accelerated.

 

 

Learn more.

EVENTS

 

Conference on Ecological and Ecosystem Restoration

CEER is a Collaborative Effort of the leaders of the National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration (NCER) and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). It will bring together ecological and ecosystem restoration scientists and practitioners to address challenges and share information about restoration projects, programs, and research from across North America. Across the continent, centuries of unsustainable activities have damaged the aquatic, marine, and terrestrial environments that underpin our economies and societies and give rise to a diversity of wildlife and plants. This conference supports SER and NCER efforts to reverse environmental degradation by renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats for the benefit of humans and nature. CEER is an interdisciplinary conference and brings together scientists, engineers, policy makers, restoration planners, partners, NGO’s and stakeholders from across the country actively involved in ecological and ecosystem restoration. 28 July – 1 August 2014. New Orleans, LA.

Learn more here.

16th Annual BIOECON Conference: Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability

The BIOECON Partners are pleased to announce the Sixteenth Annual International BIOECON conference on the theme of “Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability”. The conference will be held once again on the premises of Kings College Cambridge, England on the 22nd -23rd September 2014. The conference will be of interest to both researchers and policy makers working on issues broadly in the area of biodiversity, ecosystem services, sustainable development and natural capital, in both developed and developing countries. 21-23 September 2014. Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Learn more here.

ACES 2014 Conference: Linking Science, Practice, and Decision Making

ACES: A Community on Ecosystem Services represents a dynamic and growing assembly of professionals, researchers, and policy makers involved with ecosystem services. The ACES 2014 Conference brings together this community in partnership with Ecosystem Markets and the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP), providing an open forum to share experiences, methods, and tools, for assessing and incorporating ecosystem services into public and private decisions. The focus of the conference is to link science, practice, and sustainable decision making by bringing together the ecosystem services community from around the United States and the globe. ACES 2014 will bring together leaders in government, NGOs, academia, Native American communities, and the private sector to advance the use of ecosystem services science and practice in conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions. We hope you will make plans to join more than 500 ecosystem service stakeholders in this collaborative discussion to advance use of an ecosystem services framework for natural resource management and policy. 8-11 December 2014. Washington DC, USA.

Learn more here.

JOBS

 

Senior Manager, Climate and Biodiversity Finance Policy

Conservation International – Arlington VA, USA

The Sr. Manager for Climate and Biodiversity Finance Policy will work as part of the International Policy team and will be responsible for leading cross-institutional dialogue to develop and implement CI strategy to achieve climate and biodiversity financing policy outcomes. S/he will track all relevant financing negotiations, new and emerging financial mechanisms and funds to inform strategy, and convey relevant information back to CI staff engaged in these issues. The Sr. Manager will also be charged with developing partnerships and coalitions with like-minded organizations to develop and promote joint policy positions, provide policy advice to decision makers and support and collaborate with CI Field Programs to engage their governments on financing issues through the production of high-level policy briefs, presentations, tools and engagement in relevant on-the-ground initiatives. In addition, the Sr. Manager will lead the Biodiversity Policy team, which is responsible for developing CI’s institutional strategy, priorities and positions on the CBD, IPBES and related international fora. S/he will support regional and national programs in engaging their governments to influence these forums and achieve policy objectives.

Learn more here.

Communications Manager, Ecosystems

Environmental Defense Fund – Various locations, United States

EDF is seeking a Communications Manager to develop and implement communications plans and media outreach strategies that further the goals of the Ecosystems Program, particularly in the area of agricultural sustainability.This position requires an understanding of and keen interest in conservation and agricultural issues. Reporting directly to the program’s Communications Director, the Communications Manager will write, edit and produce a range of communications materials while securing positive media coverage of the program’s work in top-tier, regional and ag trade outlets.

Learn more here.

Sustainable Fisheries Initiative Program Assistant

—The Ecosystem Marketplace Team

If you have comments or would like to submit news stories, write to us at [email protected].

EM Exclusives

Examples, dialogue, and clearer policy need in biodiversity offsetting

In early June, 280 individuals from 32 countries met in London at the To No Net Loss of Biodiversity and Beyond conference to discuss how to ensure that development is planned to achieve no net loss or preferably a net gain in biodiversity. They explored international experience and policy on no net loss and a net gain of biodiversity, and everyone was searching for practical solutions to reconcile development with environmental protection and social fairness.

 

“There is a real genuine interest in the topic of no net loss of biodiversity now,” says BBOP Director, Kerry ten Kate. “People want to discuss it and share ideas and hear different perspectives from around the world.” Many useful lessons were shared throughout the two days and recommendations sprang from every session. However, a number of cross-cutting, key issues emerged as major themes – including strengthening protections, clarifying policy, and considering offsets only within the context of a mitigation hierarchy.

Keep reading.

How a primatologist, an industrialist, and an ecosystem entrepreneur took on big palm oil and won

When world-renowned primatologist Biruté Galdikas learned that palm oil company PT Best was about to destroy Borneo’s Seruyan Forest, she thought all was lost. Then she met ecosystem entrepreneur Todd Lemons and industrialist Rusmin Widjajam. Here’s how they blended cutting-edge finance and old-fashioned moxie to outmaneuver Big Palm Oil and save the forest.


We all use palm oil every day, and nearly half the world’s supply comes from Indonesia – with devastating results for the country’s forests, wildlife, and the global climate. Fixing it is no easy matter.

Keep reading.


Mitigation News

Comment period extended for proposed rule clarifying CWA jurisdiction

Last month, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it’s extending the public comment period on a proposed rule clarifying jurisdiction over waters of the United States, until October 21, 2014. The proposed rule, developed by EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, aims to provide a consistent definition of the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act, after years of muddled interpretation and ad-hoc decision-making. The EPA says the extension is in response to the volume of comments already received and signs that the rule is not being interpreted as intended. “There’s a lot of concern among agricultural interests in their states and what the industry has read into it,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told reporters. “We need some time to get out there and, if need be, write the rule in a way so the intent is understood.”

Read the public notice.
Learn more about the proposed rule.

Study finds unequal balance between carbon stocks and species richness

While the primary objective of the market mechanism REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) is to reduce carbon emissions coming from forest loss, preserving vital habitat for wildlife was thought to be a valuable byproduct. However a new study found that forests rich in carbon that are being conserved through REDD+ don’t necessarily contain the same richness in wildlife. The mechanism may even propel species toward extinction. Research for the study took place in Antioquia, Colombia where researchers found deforestation activities simply moved from the fuller forests to the more sparse areas where a higher number of endemic species live. The study does note the overall success of REDD+ in reducing emissions and deforestation, but encourages a more comprehensive approach when selectin

Additional resources

Examples, Dialogue And Clearer Policy Needed In Biodiversity Offsetting

 

15 July 2014 | On the third and fourth of June, 280 individuals from 32 countries met in London at the To No Net Loss of Biodiversity and Beyond conference to discuss how to ensure that development is planned to achieve no net loss or preferably a net gain in biodiversity. They explored international experience and policy on no net loss and a net gain of biodiversity, and everyone was searching for practical solutions to reconcile development with environmental protection and social fairness.

Hosted by Forest Trends, the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP), the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) at ZSL, the representatives came from companies in the extractive, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, forestry and retail sectors, from governments and intergovernmental organizations, from financial institutions, NGOs, civil society, universities, research organizations and from consultancies and small businesses.

“There is a real genuine interest in the topic of no net loss of biodiversity now,” says BBOP Director, Kerry ten Kate. “People want to discuss it and share ideas and hear different perspectives from around the world.”

Many useful lessons were shared throughout the two days and recommendations sprang from every session. However, a number of cross-cutting, key issues emerged as major themes from the two days’ discussions, as summarized below:

  • Strengthen protection: Activities, policies and frameworks to mitigate impacts on biodiversity, including those related to biodiversity offsets, must strengthen and not weaken biodiversity protection. Improving the application of the mitigation hierarchy and working towards no net loss and a net gain of biodiversity is intended to ensure greater rigour and a better outcome for conservation than under current systems, and not to undermine them.
  • Clear policy: For NNL/NG to become a realistic prospect in a country, clear and unambiguous policy requirements that establishes high standards are needed.  Many participants doubted whether voluntary systems are enough to encourage a big enough proportion of developers to plan for no net loss, nor landowners to invest in conservation activities as offsets. All participants accepted that government has a critical role to play, levelling the playing field, reducing uncertainties for business, ensuring good outcomes for people, and keeping standards high.
  • Biodiversity offsets in context: There is general recognition that biodiversity offsetting can be challenging and controversial, but that when offsets are used, they must be discussed and included within the broader mitigation framework, and not raised as an isolated issue.
  • High standards: In any impact mitigation programme (including biodiversity offsets), in order to enable good outcomes for biodiversity and people, it is critical to apply the mitigation hierarchy consistently according to high standards, such as those reflected in the BBOP Standard and IFC Performance Standard 6. In the course of negotiations with governments and companies over the design of a mitigation programme, emphasis should be placed first on discussions related to avoidance, minimization and on-site restoration. Flexibility in the approaches taken to achieve no net loss was encouraged, but clarity on the biodiversity outcome was felt to be important. Standards need to strike a balance between being too prescriptive to be practicable and being too flexible to be credible or to offer assurance of outcomes.
  • Landscape level planning: Assessing proposed project development and mitigation of impacts in the context of spatial plans undertaken at a landscape or national scale is important to support sound land use decision-making. For instance, it informs where development should or should not take place. No net loss planning should be integrated within broader planning and policy frameworks. Where possible, guidelines to identify “no-go” zones and areas of high biodiversity value suitable for conservation efforts through offsets should be identified as a matter of policy and not relegated to case-by-case decisions.
  • Capacity building and training:   There is a shortage of people with the right expertise to understand and to undertake the assessments and planning needed for no net loss, and to interpret and use the results.   This is an important limitation and needs to be corrected by training of staff from government agencies, companies, consultancies and civil society and research organisations. Certification of trained individuals would help build confidence that professionals are using high standards.
  • Examples: More examples of best practice with successful approaches and outcomes are needed to build confidence in the concepts of no net loss, net gain and the quality of mitigation measures, including biodiversity offsets. Examples that are independently verified against agreed international standards would be the most convincing.
  • Monitoring, verification and enforcement: These are vital for the quality and integrity of mitigation measures including offsets, and have often been neglected in the past.
  • More dialogue: International, multi-stakeholder discussion involving people with very different opinions about the merits of mitigation measures and biodiversity offsets is needed in order to reach and promote wide societal agreement on the necessary standards for mitigation measures and associated land-use planning. Even those with apparently opposing positions were able to move a little closer through an exchange of ideas during the conference and such dialogue should be continued.

The final conference report is available here and provides a summary of discussions at the conference.

 

Videos of the Event

Highlights of the To No Net Loss of Biodiversity and Beyond’ conference

Official Welcome and Opening Plenary

Reflections and Experiences with No Net Loss

Plenary Debate Opportunity or Peril

Session 2 Establishing a NNL System – Design

Session 3B Net Loss and Net Gain on the Ground

Session 5 Establishing a NNL System – Implementation

Session 6B – No Net Loss and Net Gain on the Ground

Day 2 Opening Plenary – Keynote by Gabon M. of Environment

Government Roundtable

Business Roundtable

Session 7 Safeguards and Tools

Session 9 – Implementation Mechanisms

Session 10 Learning from Global Standards

Session 12 – Challenges for impact assessment practitioners

Sessions 13, 14 and Concluding Remarks and Next Steps

This Week In Forest Carbon News…

This article was originally posted in the Forest Carbon newsletter. Click here to read the original.

 

7 July 2014 | William Shakespeare famously wrote that all the world’s a stage. Well in the carbon world, that stage is shared by the public and private sectors, Ecosystem Marketplace’s State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2014 report observed. EM experts and carbon market participants pondered that interaction, along with other findings from the report, during a presentation in Washington, DC last week.

Overall volume in the voluntary carbon market declined 26% as a large number of tonnes transitioned into California’s regulated market, but was boosted by a major public sector transaction in which German development Bank KfW agreed to pay the Brazilian state of Acre for its performance in mitigating forest carbon emissions, said Ecosystem Marketplace Director Molly Peters-Stanley.

Despite the challenges in the voluntary carbon market, the participants saw a silver lining in the strong momentum in favor of projects with co-benefits beyond emissions reductions. Forestry and land use projects – many of which fit this mold – took home a 45% market share, according to the report.

“The good thing for people like us is that competition is also causing the value and the quality of the offsets to go up,” said Hans Wegner, Chief Sustainability Officer at the National Geographic Society. “For me, it’s really, really important – because credibility is so important to us as an organization – that we have everything verified, that we’ve purchased offsets of high value that are accounted for.”

National Geographic purchases carbon offsets from a reforestation project in Panama and avoided deforestation (REDD) projects in Brazil and Tanzania to cover emissions from discrete aspects of its operations, from natural gas use in its buildings to business travel. Since only 4% of the Society’s emissions are within its direct control, Wegner works with suppliers to offset their ‘Scope 3’ or indirect supply chain emissions. He hopes that these relationships may expand the concept of offsetting beyond National Geographic’s doors.

Spanish soccer club Getafe is taking a slightly different approach to engagement. Last week, it announced a five-year commitment with offset supplier ALLCOT Group to neutralize its emissions, including those from the team’s travel, which has been calculated to be about 20,000 kilometers per season. (Getafe is still in the process of calculating the club’s total footprint.) The club is considering three possible forest carbon projects developed under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), but is allowing its fans to have the final say. On a voting page, fans can decide whether they want Getafe to invest in the Cikel REDD project in Brazil, the Madre de Dios REDD project in Peru, or the RMDLT Portel Para REDD project in Brazil. Almost 800 fans have cast their vote in just the first week.

“The projects are all very similar – in the three cases we talk about reforestation works – and this is an idea that appealed to the club, especially to our president, since the moment we heard about them,” said David Torres, Sport Project Leader at Getafe. “Letting our fans vote for what project they want to proceed is also really important for us as a club, as we think without their support we would never get very far.”

Here at Ecosystem Marketplace, we’re turning our sights to continued data collection for the State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2014 report. This year’s report will consist of some exciting features, including:

  • • A closer look at the co-benefits of forest carbon projects, from employment to endangered species protection
  • • New information on forestry’s role in emerging compliance carbon markets, including finance flowing to jurisdictional nested REDD
  • • Emerging trends in buyer motivations and activities, from internal carbon pricing to customer engagement with offset programs

However, our data is only as good as you make it! If you have yet to respond to the forest carbon survey, please sign up here (o para espaí±ol, aquí­) or email Allie at [email protected] to set up an account. Please note that all transaction data is kept completely confidential and only presented in aggregate. Other project information may be made visible on the Forest Carbon Portal at your request.

We look forward to hearing from you!

More news from the forest carbon marketplace is summarized below, so keep reading!

—The Ecosystem Marketplace Team

 

If you have comments or would like to submit news stories, write to us at [email protected].


News

INTERNATIONAL POLICY

The power of resolve

The Board of the Consumer Goods Forum, a network of CEOs and senior management from about 400 companies representing combined sales of 2.5 trillion euros (US$3.4 trillion), in June issued a resolution pledging to mobilize its members’ resources to help achieve zero net deforestation by 2020. This would be accomplished via individual company initiatives and collaborative efforts with governments and non-governmental organizations, including specific, cost-effective plans for sourcing commodities such as palm oil, beef and paper in a sustainable fashion. The board also resolved to work with other stakeholders to create funding mechanisms to incentivize and assist countries in conserving their forests.

NATIONAL STRATEGY AND CAPACITY

Lucky number 7?

China launched its seventh and final planned pilot carbon market last month in the city of Chongqing along the Yangtze River. The municipal government issued a total of 125 million permits for free to cover the emissions of 242 companies in 2013, though the volume of permits will shrink by 4% per year. At the launch, 16 deals covering 145,000 tonnes were announced, with all permits priced at 30 to 31.5 yuan ($4.83 to $5.07) per tonne. Forestry offsets are expected to be eligible in Chongqing, but the city may target emissions from the forestry sector in the future, according to a paper published earlier this year called Overview of Climate Change Policies and Development of Emissions Trading in China.

Logging off

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda pledged to work together and with international police organization INTERPOL and the United Nations to prevent illegal logging and facilitate the sustainable management of forests to reduce emissions in East Africa. The three countries are not only contending with illegal logging within their borders, but are also used as transit countries for timber illegally logged in other countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The global economic costs of illegal logging are staggering: an estimated $30-100 billion is lost through illegal logging every year. In contrast, well-managed forests support the livelihoods of 1.6 billion people, while ecosystem services from tropical forests alone are estimated to be worth an average $6,120 per hectare each year.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

Repeat visitors

DelAgua Health is harnessing carbon finance to distribute clean cookstoves and water purification devices to 100,000 households in western Rwanda in 2014. In an interview with Ecosystem Marketplace, Matt Spannagle, DelAgua’s Climate Partnerships Manager, spoke about why the carbon finance model makes sense for their programme of activities. “To maximize revenue [from carbon offset sales], we need to be able to demonstrate that people are using the cookstoves and filters, and therefore reducing their fuelwood use,” he said. “If you demonstrate that, then that implies going back to households again and again to make sure people are using them, and that [human contact] is what is delivering the high uptake rates.”

Just can’t wait to be king

Forest carbon project developer Wildlife Works plans to expand its REDD project in Kenya fivefold, to cover one million hectares. The currently 200,000-hectare Kasigua Corridor has generated 1.2 million metric tonnes of carbon offsets worth $3.5 million to $7 million annually, with revenues flowing to 110,000 residents as well as investors. The project also employs 350 people and protects an important migration zone for elephants, cheetahs and lions. Wildlife Works’ goal is to protect five million hectares of forest globally. Ecosystem Marketplace found that REDD projects generated a record 22.6 million offsets last year, up from 8.6 million tonnes in 2012.

A tough sell

When, back in 2010, the founders of California-based project developer Anthrotect launched a REDD+ project in the post-civil war Choco-Darien region of Colombia, they thought that selling carbon offsets would be the easy part. But since January 2013, the project has sold just 80,000 tCO2e of the total 2.8 million tCO2e it is projected to generate over its 30-year lifetime. After engaging in months of negotiations with individual buyers, Anthrotect co-founder Brodie Ferguson found that selling offsets required much more than making a phone call. He’ll need to be persistent to find buyers for his current inventory. “I’m confident sales will continue to come in and improve. I’m also confident things can’t get much worse,” Ferguson said.

FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

$5 billion goes a long way

Indonesia needs about $5 billion in international aid to hit its target of reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by as much as 41%. The $1 billion already committed by Norway is not enough to conserve the country’s forests and peatlands, said Heru Prasetyo, head of Indonesia’s new REDD+ Management Agency. And Norway’s funding could disappear if Indonesia does not have a system in place for measuring its GHGs by 2016. “To assure successful REDD+ programs, we can’t limit ourselves to the sole support from the Norwegian government,” he said. “We need to be open for new investors.” Average prices for REDD offsets fell to about $4.2 per tonne last year, the story noted, citing Ecosystem Marketplace’s State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2014 report.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

One man’s trash…

… is another man’s treasure. San Francisco startup Rainforest Connection is repurposing discarded smartphones as deforestation watchdogs. The solar-powered devices are programmed to pick up sounds such as chainsaws or alarmed animals that might indicate trees being cut. Then, a text message can be sent to local authorities. The technology has been tested in the Kalaweit Gibbon Sanctuary in Indonesia, where the devices detected illegal chainsaw noises within one day. The company launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in hopes of raising $100,000 by July 29. They’re about a third of the way there.

Double take

Indonesia’s deforestation rate is twice the rate previously reported by the country’s government, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change. The researchers used satellite data to determine that more than two million acres of primary forest were cleared in 2012, while Indonesia reported to the United Nations that the annual deforestation rate between 2009 and 2011 was one million acres annually. Indonesia has now earned the infamous title of World’s No. 1 Deforester, replacing Brazil.

HUMAN DIMENSION

All is not lost

When primatologist Biruté Galdikas learned palm oil company PT Best was about to destroy Borneo’s Seruyan Forest, she thought all was lost. Ecosystem Marketplace recounts the story of how she teamed up with ecosystem entrepreneur Todd Lemons and industrialist Rusmin Widjajam to outmaneuver big palm oil and save the forest. PT Best had claimed the entire Seruyan Forest – a massive natural filtration system that regulates water flows and provides non-timber forest products such as honey, wax and wild rubber to hundreds of villagers. It also acts as a protective buffer to a quarter-million hectares of peat forest in the Tanjung Puting National Park which, if destroyed, could release hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.

STANDARDS AND METHODOLOGY

Keep off the grass

VCS last week released an update to its Avoided Conversion of Grasslands and Shrublands methodology which it hopes will expand opportunities to use carbon finance to conserve these ecosystems, which cover roughly 25% of the Earth’s land surface. Wildlife Works developed the methodology and piloted it at its Taita Hills project in Kenya. “One of the reasons why there are some land units in the area that were not part of the REDD project was because they did not meet the forest definition,” Mike Korchinsky of Wildlife Works told Ecosystem Marketplace. “This new methodology allows us to capture the value of protecting savannah ecosystems.”

PUBLICATIONS

Back to fundamentals

The socioeconomic benefits of forests are not adequately addressed by countries, despite their potential to contribute to poverty reduction, rural development and greener economies, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) State of the World’s Forests report. Eva Mueller, director of the FAO’s forestry division, said forests are fundamental to human well-being because trees provide a direct source of food, fuel and income. Wood energy, for example, is often the only accessible and affordable fuel in developing countries such as Tanzania, where wood fuel accounts for about 90% of total energy consumption. But policies barely discuss how to improve wood energy production, make it more sustainable and reduce the burden on women and children who do most of the collecting.

Let’s slow things down

The pace of deforestation is down by 19%, from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s to 13 million hectares per year in the 2000s, according to new research by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Deforestation Success Stories examined what programs and policies are working, and finds that REDD+ funding “has proved to be money well spent” in Guyana, Brazil, Kenya, Madagascar and Costa Rica. The authors note that payment for ecosystem services programs in Mexico, Vietnam and Costa Rica “have been beneficial for the forests despite not having worked out in the way that economists and policymakers designed them.”

Hardly a dry REDD forest

Dry forests comprise just less than half of tropical forests and support some of the world’s poorest people, according to a recent report by the Center for International Forestry Research. However, research to date on carbon stocks has focused mainly on humid forests, and estimating the carbon content of dry forests is different because of a dissimilar above/below ground carbon ratio. Further research on this topic will be important if more REDD projects begin to focus on dry forests.

JOBS

Consultants, Vietnam Forests and Deltas Program – Winrock International
Based in Vietnam, the consultants will evaluate the three-year implementation of the Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) policy in Vietnam. The international consultant should have a master’s degree and at least 10 years of experience implementing and evaluating PFES. The national consultant position requires a master’s degree and five years of experience. Fluency in English is required.
Writer/Editor, Forest News – Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Based in Bogor, Indonesia, the Writer/Editor for Forest News (blog.cifor.org) will write articles, edit articles by other writers, help to manage editorial workflow and assist in coverage or major conferences and events. The ideal candidate will have an advanced degree in journalism or science, at least five years’ experience writing and editing professionally, demonstrated experience with scientific research papers and working with scientists and a strong understanding of the uses of visual media and social media.
Coordinator for Coastal Blue Carbon – Restore America’s Estuaries
Based in Arlington, Virginia, the Coordinator for Coastal Blue Carbon will support Restore America’s Estuaries national initiative that seeks to increase public and private investment in coastal habitat restoration and conservation. The position requires excellent organizational skills and attention to detail, a friendly and professional attitude, one to three years’ professional experience, and a relevant graduate degree.
Senior Natural Resources Economist – Rights and Resources Institute
Based in Washington, DC, the Senior Natural Resources Economist will lead the design and implementation of a work program that entails conducting original high-quality analysis of forest and natural resource sector business and development models in the world’s developing and forested countries. The successful candidate will have an advanced degree in natural resource economics, with a particular focus on the forest sector and at least 12-15 years of relevant professional experience, including extensive operational experience in developing countries.
Communications Manager, Forest Program – Rainforest Action Network
Based in San Francisco, California, the Communications Manager will help shape the communications strategy for Rainforest Action Network’s forest program, which has succeeded in pushing leading global companies including Disney, Mars, Kellogg and General Mills to pass policies that eliminate deforestation. The position requires three years’ prior experience as a media liaison or journalist and two-plus years’ experience with online promotion, a proven ability to build relationships with reporters, good framing and messaging skills and a passion for Rainforest Action Network’s mission.
Senior Associate, Forest Certification – Rainforest Alliance
Based in Northfield, Minnesota, the Senior Associate for Forest Certification will provide essential leadership in management and growth of Rainforest Alliance’s U.S. forest management portfolio. The position involves developing and implementing a strategic business plan. The successful candidate will have a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (advanced degree a plus), five to seven years of work experience, knowledge of the forest products industry and forest management regimes in the US, and strong interpersonal and communications skills.
Policy Coordinator, Forest Campaign – Environmental Investigation Agency
Based in Washington, DC, the Policy Coordinator will work in close collaboration with the Director of Forest Campaigns and the forest team to develop and implement strategies that halt illegal logging and improve forest governance. The successful candidate will have experience in advocacy and campaigns at the national or international level and a strong interest in natural resource management, economic justice and/or human writes. The position requires frequent travel. Knowledge of the Lacey Act, FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade) and the EU Timber Regulation as well as video production and editing skills are a plus.

ABOUT THE FOREST CARBON PORTAL

The Forest Carbon Portal provides relevant daily news, a bi-weekly news brief, feature articles, a calendar of events, a searchable member directory, a jobs board, a library of tools and resources. The Portal also includes the Forest Carbon Project Inventory, an international database of projects including those in the pipeline. Projects are described with consistent ‘nutrition labels’ and allow viewers to contact project developers.

ABOUT THE ECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE

Ecosystem Marketplace is a project of Forest Trends, a tax-exempt corporation under Section 501(c)3. This newsletter and other dimensions of our voluntary carbon markets program are funded by a series of international development agencies, philanthropic foundations, and private sector organizations. For more information on donating to Ecosystem Marketplace, please contact [email protected].

 


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Todd Lemons: Ecosystem Entrepreneur

Third in a series.

7 July 2014 | Todd Lemons spent 15 years working in sustainable forestry before he ever set foot on Borneo, and he thought he knew what a healthy forest looked like. So when he passed through a patchwork of palm-oil plantations and second-growth native forests on his way to Tanjung Puting National Park, his heart sank.

“Quite frankly, compared to sustainably-logged [secondary] forests I had gotten used to in the Amazon Basin, this one looked scraggly,” he says – and scraggly could ruin everything, because his plan to save the Seruyan Forest hinged on it being full of carbon, which to him meant plump, tall or both. If the Seruyan itself looked anything like the forest he was driving through, he thought, this whole trip is for naught.

 Todd Lemons and an orphaned infant

Todd Lemons and an orphaned infant

The year was 2007, and the world still seemed intent on forging a global solution to climate change by the end of 2009. The global economic crisis hadn’t yet pushed climate change off the front pages, and major media outlets had “discovered” that deforestation generated at least 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions – and possibly more. For Lemons, there was something else happening, too: his daughter had gone off to 1st grade, and his son had just started kindergarten.

“Your mindset changes when your kids reach that age,” he says. “Your focus shifts from worrying about their immediate survival to worrying about their future in a visceral way, and I didn’t like the world I was seeing in their future.”

It was the latest epiphany in a life of many twists and turns that began with romantic notions of the Amazon Rainforest, fed by Lemons’ grandfather’s tales of his own adventures in Guyana and nourished on a steady diet of National Geographic magazine. It was in National Geographic that he first learned of the woman he was on his way to meet: Birute Galdikas, who had been rescuing orphaned orangutans on the island since the early 1970s.

Lemons graduated from college a few years after reading about Galdikas, and then in the early 1980s he followed in his grandfather’s footsteps – first to Guyana, then to Chile and eventually to Brazil and Bolivia, where he got a job sourcing hardwoods for major American furniture dealers.

“It all started off great, and it was very exciting for a young twenty-something-year-old,” he says. “But then I had to go and look at was happening behind the scenes – at the sawmills.”

 Todd Lemons walks through a freshly-destroyed patch of forest

Todd Lemons walks through a freshly-destroyed patch of forest.

He likens the experience to that of a committed meat-eater who wanders into an unregulated slaughterhouse.

“At that moment, it’s no longer as simple as just a piece of steak or a simple wooden coffee table,” he says. “There’s a cost and a consequence behind your consumption that we have to face.”

He became incensed – not just at the environmental destruction, but at the pointlessness of it all.

“The primary mandate from the customer was to buy the widest, longest piece of mahogany you can find, because then we can be lazy [when it comes to forming the wood on-site],” he says. “So here I am sourcing this, and I’m looking at scrap piles bigger than the piles we’re shipping, and that’s putting an unnecessary burden on the environment, because a lot of this is going into a chair leg that’s no more than a foot and a half long.”

He implemented a “cut-to-size” program, which involved whittling the trees into smaller pieces designed to fit specific units of furniture before shipping the wood. As a result, he slashed the volume of trees that were destroyed but increased the volume of semi-finished products – and developed a lifelong obsession with finding economically viable solutions to environmental challenges.

Taking a Pass on Forest Carbon

In 2003, Lemons found himself managing a million-acre plantation forest in China as the world was gearing up for the 2005 implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, in which nearly 40 developed countries agreed to slash greenhouse gas emissions, and to help developing countries do the same. The Protocol, he learned, made it possible for companies that emit greenhouse gasses to reduce their carbon footprints by purchasing carbon offsets that reduce emissions elsewhere. It also made it possible for companies to generate carbon offsets by planting new trees (“afforestation”) or reestablishing lost forest (“reforestation”). His bosses asked him to find out if they could use carbon offsets to finance the expansion of their plantation.

“I looked into it, but economically, it would have been like a slow drip,” he says. “The money they could earn from carbon was just a rounding error compared to the money they were making by harvesting the forest.”

Plus, he adds, it just didn’t feel right.

 Birute Galdikas, Siswei, and Todd Lemons share a meal.

Birute Galdikas, Siswei and Todd Lemons share a meal.

“Morally, it was like a double dip,” he says. “We were going to plant the plantation forest anyway, and it didn’t seem right to get a credit for something that we’re already going to do.”

That, he later learned was a concept known as additionality: carbon markets don’t pay for business as usual. To earn carbon offsets, a developer has to prove that the finance for carbon reduction makes the reduction possible. For Lemons, “additionality” meant that even if the payments were higher, his company wouldn’t have qualified.

“I told my bosses that carbon credits weren’t worth their time, but the idea kept nagging me,” he says. “I loved the idea of a market mechanism that would pay for conservation, but I didn’t think of a plantation as conservation.”

Then he learned of a practice called avoided deforestation, which grew out of new thinking in the late 1980s among innovative organizations like Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and Brazilian NGO SPVS. The idea was to generate carbon offsets by saving endangered rainforest rather than by planting new trees.

“That resonated with me,” he says. “If you could earn money by protecting a virgin forest – that’s cool.”

It might have been cool with him, but it wasn’t cool with some of the more traditional environmental groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. As the Kyoto Protocol took shape in the 1990s, they made sure avoided deforestation wasn’t part of it.

Simply REDD

But avoided deforestation didn’t die. Companies continued to use it voluntarily to offset their emissions, and rainforest nations continued to push for its inclusion in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). By the time Lemons came to Borneo in 2007, Papua New Guinea had managed to get avoided deforestation back on the UN agenda, but now it was called REDD, for “Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation.”

The concept was deceptively simple: find a patch of forest that’s about to be destroyed, measure the carbon content of that forest, save the forest, and earn credit for the carbon that you keep locked in trees.

In practice, it was much more complicated than that. First, you had to prove that the forest you were saving really was endangered. Then you had to prove that your actions saved it, and finally you had to prove that the forest you saved didn’t result in another patch of forest being destroyed elsewhere.

The Seruyan Forest he was traveling to was definitely endangered: palm oil company PT Best had a concession to develop it, and the company had already developed 10,000 hectares. He hoped that Birute Galdikas could help him identify a way to save it.

The bigger challenge was to make it work financially, but the biggest challenges of all came from two sources. One, as expected, was PT Best, which would use its economic and political muscle to try to block the project any way it could. The other chalenge came from a source he hadn’t anticipated: old-school environmentalists who seemed to hate REDD almost as much as PT Best did.

A Labor of Love

On the economic front, Lemons found that-despite all the talk to the contrary, REDD wasn’t a lucrative endeavor, and it probably never would be – especially compared to Palm Oil.

At the time, most of the REDD research was focused on the Amazon, so he used the well-researched Brazilian forests as a model. He knew that a forest there held an average of about 200 metric tonnes of carbon per hectare. That translates into 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide kept out of the air over the 30-year lifespan of a forest-carbon project. At $7 per tonne of carbon dioxide, that’s $46 per hectare per year – and that’s just income. He had no idea what it would cost to measure, monitor, and protect the forest, which meant he couldn’t even begin to calculate the profit.

The calculus on palm oil plantations was, by comparison, incredibly straightforward: a typical plantation generated $1,000 per hectare per year in pure profit once it was up and running, and if the original forest had enough timber, the palm-oil plantation might even turn a profit on the conversion.

While the prices of carbon offsets and palm oil both fluctuated, carbon prices weren’t going to increase twenty-fold, and it was clear that it would be more lucrative to destroy a forest than to save it – a fact lost on many of the organizations involved in the REDD debate.

REDD Misunderstood

Proponents tended to talk of REDD as an “incentive” to save forests, while critics talked of it as some diabolical scheme hatched by the remnants of Enron to commoditize forests. Proponents, in other words, talked of a green utopia, while opponents talked of “carbon cowboys” and “land grabs.” Both sides were wrong.

REDD didn’t create an incentive to save forests, because anyone who responded to purely economic incentives would opt for palm oil. What REDD did create was a financing mechanism that might make it possible for people who wanted to save the forest to do so.

“It will always be easier to chop a forest than to manage it,” says Brazilian indigenous leader Almir Surui, who also incurred pushback from old-school environmental groups when he developed the first indigenous-led REDD project. “That’s what no one seems to get: REDD is hard work, and it’s not something you do if all you want to do is make money.”

To make matters worse, the land-grab that REDD opponents worried about had already happened, but the grabbers weren’t “carbon cowboys.” They were palm-oil developers like PT Best, which was in the process of devouring the Seruyan Forest. The grabbers in turn sold their palm oil to companies like Bunge, Cargill, and Unilever, who put it into foods that the rest of us bought and ate.

“In the end, we’re all complicit, because we all eat this stuff,” says Lemons, munching a granola bar that he purchased at Whole Foods on a recent trip to the United States. “The only difference between you and I and most people out there is that we got to know firsthand where it comes from.”

One Tool Among Many

To stifle climate change, he says, we have to change global buying patterns, but REDD is more of a supply-side solution, analogous to the cut-to-order procedures he implemented in Latin America. It’s one tool in a very big box that includes organizations like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which aims to promote sustainable sourcing of palm oil, and even old-school environmentalists to put pressure on those companies that need some prodding.

Lemons says those tools all fit together: by putting a price on degradation, he says, REDD will eventually help consumers understand the true cost of their purchases. On a more immediate level in the short term, REDD can be used to leverage more efficient land-use practices among producers – by shifting production from forested lands to degraded lands, for example, as the Indonesian government advocates.

There’s something else, too, and for Lemons, it was critical: REDD, he says, unites economy and ecology by turning conservation into a business, while old-school environmentalists embraced a false dichotomy between growth and conservation.

“REDD is part of a global paradigm shift that traditional environmentalism is missing,” he says. “Opposition-based environmentalism has its place, and so does philanthropy, but neither can hold a candle to what the global economy can achieve. We just have to get that economy properly aligned.”

But for REDD to work as a business, Lemons would have to show that the returns – while nowhere near as lucrative as a ravenous sector like palm oil – were still worth pursuing. Then he’d have to attract investors, and the only way that would work was if the forests stored enough carbon to make the returns worthwhile.

As Lemons looked out at the scraggly trees zipping past his car window on his way to Seruyan Forest, he knew there wasn’t enough carbon in them to fund a kindergarten – let alone take on a palm-oil company looking at a $150-million-per-year business. He also knew that any hope lay not in the trees, but in the soil.

The Power of Peat

That’s because the Tanjung Puting National Park is a massive lowland swamp with trees in it, and those trees have been dropping leaves into water for 10,000 years. Those leaves have coalesced into a half-decayed loam of organic matter up to ten meters deep.

 Birute Galdikas with two orphaned orangutans.

Birute Galdikas with two orphaned orangutans.

Environmentally, the park and the Seruyan Forest that PT Best was converting to a palm-oil plantation are massive bins of carbon that extend to the mangroves along the Java Sea. As companies like PT Best destroyed the forest to make way for their plantations, they were releasing hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That’s what made Indonesia the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, behind the United States and China. It’s why Lemons needed to save the Seruyan Forest.

But for that to work, he had to know how much carbon was in those peat swamps and how much would be released if PT Best continued destroying them. That was a question no one had answered because no one had written the calculus for it.

“We now know that peatland has about eight times as much carbon per hectare as a typical rainforest of the Amazon,” says Heru Prasetyo, the head of Indonesia’s REDD Task Force. “Back in 2007, no one really knew.”

Lemons certainly didn’t know that as he climbed out of the taxi at Galdikas’ orangutan care center, but he sensed that she could somehow help him find the answers. Unfortunately, he’d neglected to tell her that he was coming.

Next Week: Wrestling with orangutans: The genesis of the Rimba-Raya REDD project.

 

This Week In Water: Yorkshire Water Accounts for NatCap Impacts

This article was originally published in the Water Log newsletter. Click here to read the original.

 

2 July 2014 | Greetings! Earlier this month, the same week that US President Barack Obama unveiled a national climate action plan that opens the door to cap-and-trade in the power sector, Peru’s National Congress passed the country’s ground-breaking Payments for Ecosystem Services Law (Ley de Mecanismos de Retribucií³n por Servicios Ecosistémicos). The law passed with 83 votes in favor and none against, with no abstentions, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Environment (MINAM).

The law sets out a framework for compensation for ecosystem services (like clean water or carbon storage) between land stewards and beneficiaries, including civil society, businesses, and municipal governments. Contracts will still be voluntary agreements between these parties, which means the government’s role is limited, according to those familiar with the law. It boils down to ecosystem services management and providing regulatory certainty for contracts – though the government will also help to identify payers and administer the compensation process.

“It’s a voluntary agreement between private parties with a private contract, but the state often owns the natural resources at the center of the contract,” explains Jose Luis Capella, Director of the Forestry Program in the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law (SPDA).

Examples of ecosystem services contracts in Peru are plentiful, like a project to restore degraded lands in the Rumiyacu-Mishquiyacu micro-watersheds, located among the jungles of Peru’s San Martin region. Residents in the city of Moyobamba agreed to finance sustainable land management through a monthly payment on their water bill. The Watershed Services Incubator, a collaborative initiative between Forest Trends (publisher of Ecosystem Marketplace) and MINAM, among other institutions, is a larger-scale effort to provide a capacity-building platform for developing water projects based on a payments for ecosystem services (PES) model.

Ultimately, Peru’s law aims to coordinate all of these activities by providing a simplified framework for PES to increase the mechanism’s use. It’s based on a simple idea that isn’t particularly innovative: those who help maintain and improve ecosystem services establish an agreement with those who are voluntarily willing to compensate for those services.

Other big stories this month: Yorkshire Water becomes the first water company to develop an environmental profit & loss statement reflecting its impacts on natural capital. India’s Sanjay Ghandi National Park is now part of Mumbai’s “natural infrastructure” system with the announcement of watershed management plans for the park to protect city drinking water supplies. And the latest installment in our series on the water-energy-food nexus offers a background look at what the concept, and why it’s so important to put nature in the nexus.

Very best,

— The Ecosystem Marketplace Team

For questions or comments, please contact [email protected]


EM Headlines

GENERAL

Peruvian Congress passes historic ecosystem services law

Six years in the making, Peru’s new Ecosystem Services Law passed this month, providing a comprehensive legal framework for the sticky issue of payments for ecosystem services. It is one of the most advanced pieces of legislation of its type, but had been stuck in committee for five years. Peru’s National Congress passed the country’s ground-breaking Payments for Ecosystem Services Law (Ley de Mecanismos de Retribucií³n por Servicios Ecosistémicos) with 83 votes in favor and none against, with no abstentions, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Environment.

The law provides a legal framework to support a diverse range of ecosystem services – including greenhouse gas emissions reductions, biodiversity conservation and the preservation of natural beauty. Investments in watershed services (IWS), an already popular water management method in the country, have also been incorporated into the proposal.

There are two parties involved in the compensation process that the law lays out. The first are land stewards – farmers, indigenous peoples, landowners and individuals involved in ecotourism, who act as the receivers of ecosystem services. The other group – mostly civil society, businesses and municipalities – are the payers. They compensate the land stewards to practice sustainable land-use. These sustainable practices ensure businesses and cities will have the ecosystem services, like clean water and air, that they need to survive and thrive.

The government will be responsible for identifying the payers and also for administering the compensation process.

Read more at Ecosystem Marketplace.

 

The water-energy-food nexus: Interlinked solutions for interlinked challenges

Ecosystem Marketplace is launching a series of stories leading up to the State of Watershed Payments 2014 report release date that looks at global challenges related to the nexus and the various approaches businesses, government and the world as a whole are taking to address this issue.

In the latest article in the series, we take a look at how our demands for energy, food and water all drive each other, and how we can prevent them from driving in the wrong direction. We examine cases from India to California to sketch out what, exactly, the “nexus challenge” is, and how we can meet it. (Hint: it involves putting nature in the nexus.)

Get background on the nexus here.

 

DelAgua: Delivering Emissions Reductions, Clean Water, And Hot Beans

DelAgua Health is in the business of emissions avoidance as well as emissions reduction. It’s a tricky but vital distinction. In addition to cutting climate-warming emissions that are already occurring, the UK-based company is focused on preventing emissions that never have to occur in the first place – especially from the 3 billion people in the world who cook food using traditional cookstoves or open fires, and the 884 million who still do not have access to safe drinking water.

Carbon finance through the sale of offsets is central to DelAgua’s business model. Its programme of activities under the United Nation’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) combines the distribution of two household devices – clean cookstoves and water filters – to Rwandan families and has been piloted in 2,000 homes so far. In addition to reducing the need for fuelwood to boil water and cook food, therefore alleviating pressure on forests, the water filters almost instantaneously reduce water-borne illnesses while the lower-smoke cookstoves relieve respiratory ailments over time.

Matt Spannagle, DelAgua’s Climate Partnerships Manager, spoke with Ecosystem Marketplace (EM) ahead of the release of EM’s full State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2014 report about the motivation behind the double registration, some unexpected benefits of clean cookstoves, and why carbon offset sales makes more sense than other potential finance streams.

Read more at Ecosystem Marketplace.

 

Barack Obama And The Rationale For Ecosystem Service Markets

US President Barack Obama continued to roll out his Climate Action Plan last week by addressing the League of Conservation Voters. In the address, he mocked climate-science deniers, touted renewable energy, and warned environmentalists against ignoring the potential costs of reducing emissions. He also defended the Clean Water Act – an act that succeeds by addressing concerns about economics cost head-on.


A set of mechanisms in the Clean Water Act let land developers disrupt environmentally significant swamps (or “wetlands”) that filter water and regulate floods. That’s right. This great success works in part because it lets bad things happen. But there’s a catch: this degradation can only happen under very limited circumstances and only after a rigorous permitting process. More importantly, it can only happen if the developer compensates by either restoring, creating, or in some cases preserving an endangered wetland area of equal or greater environmental value than what is lost. This ingenious mechanism, which dates back to the 1970s, has led to the creation of wetland mitigation banks, private conservation efforts that proactively restore degraded wetlands – and on typically larger, more contiguous sites that deliver more ecosystem services than the isolated patches of degraded swamp that are destroyed.


This is one of the great unsung successes of the 1970s environmental boom, and it succeeds because it doesn’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Something similar is happening under the Endangered Species Act, which allows for development on habitat under very limited circumstances and only if habitat of equal or greater value is restored, created, or preserved. These things work, and they work so well that the European Union is incorporating similar mechanisms into its environmental strategy.

Read the opinion piece at Huffington Post.

 

In The News

POLICY UPDATES

Mumbai-area national park to be managed for watershed values

A watershed management plan is in the works for India’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park, with an eye to stabilizing flows and boosting water retention capacity in the park. The park, an important source of water for the city of Mumbai, will see new soil, water and habitat conservation work underway over the next eighteen months. It signals a more ‘soft-path’ approach to water security. “We used to construct artificial water holes inside the park whenever there was a scarcity. Now, we will manage the natural watersheds in an organised manner and give priority to natural water springs. This will help the wildlife, vegetation and help Mumbaikars’ water needs,” said Vikas Gupta, chief conservator of the park.

The Indian Express has the story.

 

China looks to avoid water scarce fate with new projects

China will be short 200 million cubic meters per year by the end of the next decade if the nation continues on the trajectory it’s currently on, according to the think tank 2030 World Resources Group. This alarming fact is likely a driving force behind the federal government’s approval of 170 new water projects that are meant to expand irrigation, reduce water usage in agriculture and speed up construction of its south-north water transfer infrastructure. The projects will be implemented over the next six years and, if successful, will reduce demand by 26 billion cubic meters of water (m3) and increase supply by 80 billion m3.


As of right now, China’s water challenges are staggering. Decades of rapid economic development with little regard for the environment has diminished China’s water resources. The government has said 70 percent of its groundwater is polluted. And recently, the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the country’s glaciers has shrunk fifteen percent in the last 30 years. This will impact river’s water flow and further cut water supplies. “Not executing this plan is really not an option,” says Debra Tan of the Hong-Kong based non-profit, China Water Risk.

Read more from Reuters.

 

What the US West can learn from Australia’s water troubles

When farmers don’t get the water they need, everybody suffers. This statement was made painfully clear for Australians as they struggled through a horrific drought that lasted over ten years and wreaked havoc on the nation’s economy and environment. River flows throughout Australia’s food basket, the Murray-Darling Basin, were only 40 to 60 percent of average. And over-allocation of the basin’s water rights meant that during these dry times, many farmers weren’t distributed any water.


The situation, which might sound familiar to people who’ve been living in the US West lately, led Australia to develop a water extraction cap policy called the Basin Plan, which recognizes the need to reduce water use by one third and leave 60 percent of water in the river. As most of water consumed goes toward irrigated agriculture, the government has provided funding for installing efficient farming techniques like drip irrigation. To date, nearly 70 percent of the targeted reductions in water use have been achieved, leading some to believe Australia’s strategy could be a model in the US and other water scarce regions.

Learn more from National Geographic NewsWatch.

 

Can nexus thinking deliver an energy, food and water secure future?

The interconnections between the water, energy and food sectors make up what’s known as the ‘nexus.’ Nexus approaches, which seek innovative and holistic methods to solve global interlinked challenges impacting each sector, are on the rise among NGOs and business leaders. But can the nexus become more than just a buzzword and actually help deliver solutions? Two academics from the environmental space ask this question and have found substantial momentum for nexus thinking. The severity of the resource scarcity situation is a key driver: it has never been more dire and is forcing society to accept interlinked resource challenges and reject business as usual as unsustainable. And evidence of this new thinking is seen among some large corporations. Big oil and gas companies are discussing the “resource trilemma” while brewing giant SABMiller is attempting to make decisions using a resource nexus lens.

Read more at The Guardian.

 

GLOBAL MARKETS

UK water company takes first steps toward natcap accounting

Contrary to the way they’re often treated in traditional economic thinking, natural resources are not infinite, and businesses take a big risk in not using or accounting for them accordingly. Companies report that resource-related supply chain disruption and price volatility are already happening. A new reportfrom CIMA, EY, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the Natural Capital Coalition highlights how these risks are largely ignored in corporate boardrooms.


However, one UK water utility, Yorkshire Water, is making efforts to integrate sustainability into its business strategy and is billing itself as the first water company to do so. Working with the environmental consulting firm, Trucost, Yorkshire Water has implemented an environmental profit and loss (EP&L) account. While the EP&L isn’t perfect and plenty of challenges still remain, it’s a start to integrating natural capital into Yorkshire Water’s balance sheets and has the potential to encourage other companies to follow. Simon Barnes, Yorkshire Water’s program director, says, “There are all sorts of reasons why you don’t do it – it’s not quite the right time, we don’t have the right data – but if you keep waiting you will never make a change.”

Keep reading at The Guardian.

 

PES in Vietnam daunted by inefficient and illegal activities

Like China and Costa Rica before it, Vietnam is attempting to implement a national policy of payments for ecosystem services (PES) to protect the nation’s watersheds and forests from illegal deforestation. The Payments for Forest Environmental Services program requires hydropower companies and other organizations reliant on ecosystem services, like tourism operators and water companies, to pay rural and mainly poor communities to practice conservation.


The program is meant to support economic development in poor areas while protecting Vietnam’s forests but its success is uncertain. For one, little environmental monitoring takes place to measure if the conservation practices are having an effect on water quality or forest health. And because of Vietnam’s power distribution monopoly, collecting money from several hydropower operations is proving difficult. Then there are the lucrative illegal activities, like logging and planting coffee trees in state forests, that lure farmers out of participating in the program. But the program is very much in its early days (having launched nationally in 2011) and the challenges Vietnam is facing are much like those faced in other countries testing national PES strategies.

The New York Times has coverage.

 

In the midst of ‘replenishment’ success, Coca-Cola closure order in India calls back bad memories

A Coca-Cola bottling plant in northern India was ordered closed earlier this month after local farmers complained to Uttar Pradesh authorities that the plant was depleting groundwater levels. But shortly thereafter, India’s National Green Tribunal overturned the local ruling, allowing the plant to reopen. The closure action echoed a similar incident ten years earlier, when the Kerala government withdrew consent for a Coca-Cola plant over similar allegations.


The Coca-Cola Company, which called claims about its Uttar Pradesh water usage “misleading and false,” in recent years has invested heavily in efforts to reduce water use and replenish an amount equivalent to its use through funding efficiency, watershed development, and ecological restoration projects. On June 5th, the day before the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board ordered the plant closure, Coca-Cola announced that it had replenished 68 percent of water used in finished beverages globally in 2013 and is on track to reach its goal of 100 percent replenishment by 2020. In India, Coca-Cola estimates that it has already surpassed that target, having reached 130% replenishment relative to its operations in the country.

Read about the initial closure in the Financial Times.
Get coverage of the National Green Tribunal decision from BeverageDaily.

 

Setting the bounds for public-private partnerships on water

At the CEO Water Mandate’s thirteenth working conference in Lima in May, the group along with WWF released a very interesting discussion paper exploring the potential of business-government cooperation for water governance, Shared Water Challenges and Interests: The Case for Private Sector Engagement in Water Policy and Management. Lest readers be wary of business involvement in management of a public good, the brief offers case examples of successful public-private collaboration for sustainable management – whether through improving efficiencies, financing infrastructure, or moving sustainable practice forward. It also recognizes the limits of the approach, acknowledging critics’ worries about policy capture and greenwashing. Still, the authors say, “Current conditions actually offer a much greater incentive for companies to align their water-related policies and practices with the public interest than in the past,” and it would be a mistake for the public to pass on that opportunity.

Get background from IISD.
Download the discussion paper (pdf).
Read a summary of the meeting (pdf).

 

CISL report offers four collaborative financing scenarios for UK catchment management

A report launched by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in June takes on a similar question – what exactly should public-private collaboration on sustainable water management look like? – from a different angle. Researchers developed four models, each representing a different spread of cross-sectoral financing, governance and ownership. The models were used to examine how co-investment in catchment management might deliver resilience to water scarcity in the UK, and develop business cases for each sector participating.


No clear winners emerged – each model has its own benefits and implementation challenges – but the report’s authors say they hope it will help decision-makers consider future paths. “I believe that the Sink or Swim work places business in an excellent position to navigate the collective action that is required to address water resource management across sectors and alongside government,” CISL programme manager Dr Gemma Cranston said in a press release. “This innovative thinking has laid the groundwork for multi-sector plans and approaches to be implemented.”

Read a press release.
Read the report (pdf direct download).

 

June PENNVEST nutrient auction posts lower prices, slightly higher forward volumes from last year

In Pennsylvania, a June 11 auction saw certified nutrient credits for the 2014-2015 compliance years drop a bit in price though with a slight uptick in forward sales compared to last year. PENNVEST – the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority – holds regular auctions for nitrogen and phosphorus credits for water quality trading markets in the Susquehanna and Potomac River basins. This month, a total of 23,000 credits for the 2014 compliance year went for $2.01-$2.27 (with prices falling in a second round of bidding), and 10,000 credits for 2015 within the same range. At a forward auction in June 2013, 9,000 credits for the 2014 year were sold for $2.78-$2.96, and a total of 37,000 2013 ‘spot’ credits for $2.15-$2.67. All trades in the recent auction were for the Susquehanna Basin. Depending on whom you ask, lower credit prices aren’t necessarily a bad thing: it suggests that dischargers in the state are meeting their pollution control requirements at a lower cost. Trades and a credit registry are hosted on the Markit platform. The next forward auction is scheduled for September 10th.

Read a press release.
View the PA Credit Trading page on Markit.

 

“Rare” marketing campaigns help move investments in watershed services forward

Successful reciprocal water agreements in Latin America continue to gain traction as Rare, the international conservation organization, initiates a slew of projects in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Mexico. Water users incentivize farmers to practice conservation with actions, supplying them with barbed wire to keep cattle out of streams or providing them with the training to grow more sustainable crops and conserve critical habitat. Those activities keep upstream areas healthy and help regulate freshwater flows to downstream areas. Rare is using its “Pride” marketing campaign model to encourage local populations to be proud of their natural resources and protect them by practicing good stewardship.

National Geographic NewsWatch has coverage.

 

EVENTS

Reciprocal Agreements for Water School

Fundacií³n Natura Bolivia with the support of various donors has established a School for Reciprocal Agreements for Water (Acuerdos Recí­procos por Agua, or ARA). The school seeks to inspire leaders in the region through training and education, working with mayors, municipal government, leaders of indigenous organizations, farmers and producer associations, NGOs, and other stakeholders. The School teaches how to implement ARA schemes in various contexts, with the goal of scaling up the ARA model in Bolivia and Latin America and through ARAs ensure the conservation of water and biodiversity-rich ecosystems. This intensive six-day course reviews in detail the establishment of ARAs. Each course has twenty places open will run in August and again in October of this year. All trainings are held in Spanish. The first course will be held in the cities of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Vallegrande, Bolivia 11 to August 16, 2014.

Learn more here (in Spanish).

 

World Water Week 2014: Energy and Water

World Water Week is hosted and organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and takes place in Stockholm. The World Water Week has been the annual focal point for the globe’s water issues since 1991. Every year, SIWI provides a platform for over 200 collaborating organisations to convene events at the World Water Week. In addition, individuals from around the globe present their findings at the scientific workshops. Early Bird discount rate is available till 30 June. 31 August – 5 September 2014. Stockholm, Sweden.

Learn more here.

 

Ecosystem Services Partnership Conference 2014

The emphasis of this Seventh international ESP conference will be on the use of the ecosystem services concept at the local level, focusing on Latin America with a special emphasis on Costa Rica. Scientists representing several EU-funded projects will present their results on Community Based Ecosystem Management. Don’t miss your chance to interact and exchange ideas with the rapidly growing network of ESP members, practitioners, educators, policy-makers, researchers, and many others from all continents. Be part of special sessions and working-groups producing outcomes ranging from journal articles, white papers, book chapters, grant proposals, database structures, websites, and much more. The deadline for the submission of abstracts for posters is June 15th and July 6th. 8-12 September 2014. San Jose, Costa Rica.

Learn more here.

 

One Water Leadership (OWL) Summit

Early Bird Registration for this year’s One Water Leadership (OWL) Summit is open with reduced rates! Join the 5th annual event September 15 – 17, in Kansas City. Invited keynotes include: President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Mayor of Sacramento Kevin Johnson and U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. Spotlight Communities will drive the national conversation on water as the centerpiece for urban sustainability, developing green infrastructure and resource recovery. 15-17 September 2014. Kansas City MO, USA.

Learn more here.

 

16th Annual BIOECON Conference

The BIOECON Partners are pleased to announce the Sixteenth Annual International BIOECON conference on the theme of “Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability”. The conference will be of interest to both researchers and policy makers working on issues broadly in the area of biodiversity, ecosystem services, sustainable development and natural capital, in both developed and developing countries. The conference takes a broad interest in the area of resource management, development and conservation, including but not limited to: the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services in economic development, plant genetic resources and food security issues, deforestation and development, fisheries and institutional adaptation, development and conservation, wildlife conservation, and international trade and regulation. The conference will have sessions on economic development, growth and biodiversity conservation, as well as on institutions and institutional change pertaining to the management of living resources. 21-23 September 2014. Cambridge, UK.

Learn more here.

 

World Green Infrastructure Congress

The Congress will present the latest technological developments, green industry awards, iconic best practice projects, research data, professional training workshops, Living Art competition and new areas of applications in the field of green infrastructure. It will serve as a surface + space where international urban greenery thought leaders from various disciplines may come together with architects, landscape architects, landscaper contractors, environmentalists, horticulturists, nursery growers and policymakers and stakeholders to examine the present and future trends of this growing sector. 7-10 October 2014. Sydney, Australia.

Learn more here.

 

ACES 2014 Conference: Linking Science, Practice, and Decision Making

ACES: A Community on Ecosystem Services represents a dynamic and growing assembly of professionals, researchers, and policy makers involved with ecosystem services. The ACES 2014 Conference brings together this community in partnership with Ecosystem Markets and the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP), providing an open forum to share experiences, methods, and tools, for assessing and incorporating ecosystem services into public and private decisions. The focus of the conference is to link science, practice, and sustainable decision making by bringing together the ecosystem services community from around the United States and the globe. ACES 2014 will bring together leaders in government, NGOs, academia, Native American communities, and the private sector to advance the use of ecosystem services science and practice in conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions. We hope you will make plans to join more than 500 ecosystem service stakeholders in this collaborative discussion to advance use of an ecosystem services framework for natural resource management and policy. Abstract submission deadline is July 11th. 8-11 December 2014. Washington DC, USA.

Learn more here.

CONTRIBUTING TO ECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE

Ecosystem Marketplace is a project of Forest Trends a tax-exempt corporation under Section 501(c)(3).The non-profit evaluator Charity Navigator has given Forest Trends its highest rating (4 out of 4 stars) recognizing excellence in our financial management and organizational efficiency.

 


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DelAgua: Delivering Emissions Reductions, Clean Water, And Hot Beans

 

30 June 2014 | DelAgua Health is in the business of emissions avoidance as well as emissions reduction. It’s a tricky but vital distinction. In addition to cutting climate-warming emissions that are already occurring, the UK-based company is focused on preventing emissions that never have to occur in the first place – especially from the 3 billion people in the world who cook food using traditional cookstoves or open fires, and the 884 million who still do not have access to safe drinking water.

Carbon finance through the sale of offsets is central to DelAgua’s business model. Its programme of activities (PoA) under the United Nation’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) combines the distribution of two household devices – clean cookstoves and water filters – to Rwandan families and has been piloted in 2,000 homes so far. In addition to reducing the need for fuelwood to boil water and cook food, therefore alleviating pressure on forests, the water filters almost instantaneously reduce water-borne illnesses while the lower-smoke cookstoves relieve respiratory ailments over time.

Matt Spannagle, DelAgua’s Climate Partnerships Manager, spoke with Ecosystem Marketplace (EM) ahead of the release of EM’s full State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2014 report about the motivation behind the double registration, some unexpected benefits of clean cookstoves, and why carbon offset sales makes more sense than other potential finance streams.

Allie Goldstein: I know that DelAgua registered this project under both the CDM and the American Carbon Registry (ACR)? What was the motivation for the double registration?

Matt Spannagle: The low prices on the CDM is mainly it. We wanted to sell on the voluntary market as well as to people who would normally buy CDM. If you talk to American buyers, particularly US buyers but also Canadian buyers, they would rather see the American Carbon Registry because it’s American or the VCS (Verified Carbon Standard) because it’s based in the United States. The idea of private-sector led or business-led initiatives that are doing good things has more traction with US buyers than a United Nations system that is somehow government mandated.

AG: Do you still have hope for the CDM?

MS: That’s kind of the billion-dollar question! It’s a pretty risky gamble to put all your eggs in that basket. But at the same time, the fundamentals are: climate change is terrible now and it’s getting worse every day. The commitment globally is for a two-degree target, though anyone who knows anything about it doesn’t really believe we’re going to meet two degrees on the current trajectory. But that is the political commitment to doing something about it, and the only thing that has been shown to work at scale so far is market-based mechanisms. And CDM is the vanguard of that market-based mechanism.

AG: Tell me a little bit about the programme of activities and how the crediting works for doing both cookstoves and water filters within one program.

MS: It’s about avoided biomass use. You use less wood for cooking [with the new cookstove], and if you have a water filter, you don’t have to boil your water. There is a bit of a cross-over factor: When we gave people cookstoves, they would use less wood to boil their water, so we had to do a calculation for that cross-over, which we had to get approved by ACR and by the CDM Executive Board. But in terms of the monitoring requirements, it’s relatively straightforward.

And if you’re going through the trouble of setting up a program to get a cookstove in someone’s house, it’s not much additional effort to also put a water filter in their house. So you get that efficiency of scale and efficiency of process. We have a pilot of 2,000 households. We have good uptake rates, high responsiveness, and villagers are getting on with their lives.

Read more from the Forest Carbon Portal.

 

Additional resources

This Week In V-Carbon News…

This article was originally published in the V-Carbon newsletter. Click here to read the original.

 

26 June 2014 | The data came to life this week at Ecosystem Marketplace’s State of the Voluntary Carbon Market 2014 report presentation in Washington DC, where market participants gathered to discuss trends in voluntary carbon offsetting – and where we go from here.

Though market value fell to $379 million last year, down from $523 million in 2012, a close look at the findings shows that much of the drop is due to shifts in compliance markets that affect voluntary purchasing. An expert panel – including Christian Dannecker of South Pole Group, Brian McFarland of Carbonfund.org and Hans Wegner of the National Geographic Society – also found plenty of silver lining.

“The good thing for people like us is that competition is also causing the value and the quality of the offsets to go up,” Wegner, the Chief Sustainability Officer at National Geographic Society, said. Nat Geo has purchased offsets from a reforestation project in Panama as well as REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of forests) projects in Brazil and Tanzania.

Dannecker told the audience that he was encouraged – or at least not discouraged – by the report findings, and optimistic for new business opportunities. “It’s a good time for new players to enter the market because it’s easier to do so given the low prices, he said.

To McFarland, the supply-demand dynamic for REDD projects, in which a record number of tonnes were transacted at lower average pricing, was unsurprising but nevertheless concerning, since the viability of these projects depends on increasing demand. It is encouraging to see forest carbon project issuing offsets on California’s compliance market, and acceptance of international REDD offsets into the program would be an important next step, he said.

Thanks to the many attendees who joined in person and virtually through the webstream, and a special thanks to Hunton & Williams for generously hosting. If you weren’t able to participate or just want to relive the moment, please view the presentation slides and live recording.

In all of the numbers, it’s easy to look past the contributions of each project and the individuals that are making emission reductions happen every day. The Delta Institute provided one example last week with the announcement of the first offset transaction in the Nitrogen Credit Program (NCP). Myron Ortner, owner of a 40-acre farm in Michigan, voluntarily reduced his nitrogen fertilizer usage to become the first recipient of offsets under a methodology developed in partnership with Michigan State University and the Electric Power Research Institute.

Offsets from the program are generated due to the reduction in nitrous oxide caused when excess agricultural fertilizer is broken down in the soil. According to the US Department of Agriculture, more than 74 million acres were planted to corn in the North Central Region last year, representing a significant reduction potential for NCP. The program was recognized for outstanding environmental achievements by American Carbon Registry in March 2014 with an Innovation Award.

Many more groundbreaking stories from the voluntary carbon marketplace are summarized below, so keep reading!

Smile, we’re on camera

You may have noticed the new video feature on Ecosystem Marketplace’s homepage, which so far has featured our “Voices from Cologne” series with interviews with some of the movers and shakers at last month’s Carbon Expo. In case you missed it: Ed Hanrahan, CEO of project developer ClimateCare, commented on corporate demand for carbon offsets, the World Bank’s Alex Kossoy discussed the proliferation of regional programs in China and the United States, and Rick Saines, head of North America Climate Change and Environmental Markets Practice at Baker & McKenzie, argued that a global agreement can provide guidance for individual countries, but domestic policy will ultimately drive action on climate change. More to come.

Every year, Ecosystem Marketplace relies wholly on offset market participants to financially support the State of research. In return, sponsors ($7.5k+) and supporters ($3k) benefit from the report’s growing exposure, early insight into our findings, and opportunities to engage directly with Ecosystem Marketplace in report-related outreach and events. Interested organizations should contact Molly Peters-Stanley.

—The Editors

For comments or questions, please email: [email protected]


V-Carbon News

Voluntary Carbon

Score 331,000 for the home team
As fíºtbol fans tune in for the World Cup, host country Brazil’s emissions have also been in the spotlight. The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) will offset 331,000 tCO2e for the World Cup from four projects located in Brazil to cover carbon emissions associated with the travel and accommodation of all staff, officials, teams, volunteers and guests and emissions resulting from venues, stadiums, offices and TV production. The Purus Project, which contributes to the preservation of 36,000 hectares of pristine rain forest from deforestation, is among the projects chosen. Local project developer Mariama Vendramini of Biofí­lica told Ecosystem Marketplace that FIFA’s offsetting commitment represents one of several initiatives that has helped increase domestic interest in forestry offsetsRead the press release
Read more at Ecosystem Marketplace

 

Winds of change
India is one of the top five wind markets in the world with more than 21,000 MW of installed capacity. And as India’s total wind power potential is estimated at about 80 GW, wind energy production in the country has room to grow and then some. These wind projects can sell carbon offsets or renewable energy certificates (RECs), but the markets for both offsets and RECs has been challenging, Dipjay Sanchania of CLP Wind Farms told Ecosystem Marketplace.Read more at Ecosystem Marketplace

 

A method to the blackness?
The Gold Standard is considering the development of a methodology to allow black carbon emission reductions to earn carbon offsets from appliances such as clean cookstoves. This expanded methodology would be incorporated into an existing methodology covering cookstoves. Challenges faced in establishing the methodology include measurement, quantification, and monitoring; establishing an absolute value for the global warming potential of black carbon; and accounting for the regional nature of black carbon impacts. The Gold Standard is seeking comments from stakeholders on its proposal by July 18.Read more here

 

Climate North America

Feelin’ blue
The Forestland Group and Blue Source announced the issuance of 1.7 million forest carbon offsets for California’s cap-and-trade carbon market. The emissions reductions come from 220,000 acres stretching over seven counties in Michigan’s stunning Upper Peninsula, as part of the Blue Source Bishop Improved Forest Management project. It is the largest project issued offsets by California’s program to date. “We are excited to have completed a project of this scale which we believe provides important proof that commercial timberland operators practicing sustainable forestry can participate and thrive within the California market,” said Roger Williams, President of Blue Source. In a positive sign for the market, the development cycle for California-eligible forest carbon projects is shortening, Williams noted.Read more here

 

Time to pull a 360
Democratic state lawmakers and environmentalists from New Jersey say that it is time for the state to act on climate change and rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The lawmakers point out that New Jersey could likely meet the requirements for the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently proposed rule to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power plants through RGGI. Governor Chris Christie pulled New Jersey out of the then 10-state cap-and-trade program in 2011. A state appeals court ruled in March that this move was illegal, but Christie’s administration announced in May it would propose repealing the relevant regulations. The EPA rule is scheduled to be finalized June 2015.Read more here

 

Kyoto & Beyond

A lost cause
International certification firm SGS will no longer audit clean energy projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and will surrender accreditation under the program. The company attempted to move its UK-based auditing business to India earlier this year to cut costs, but said those plans are no longer feasible. “SGS’ decision reflects the continuing contraction in the CDM market and its continuing concerns with the costs and risks associated with the CDM accreditation process,” the company said. The announcement comes after Norway-based DNV GL, which had been the largest CDM auditor, said in February it would cease validation and verification of CDM projects.Read more at Reuters
Read more here

 

Global Policy Update

Hey buddy, can you spare a permit?
Shanghai’s first carbon permit auction is scheduled for June 30, when nearly 200 of the city’s largest emitters will need to have permits to cover their 2013 emissions. A shortage of permits on the market has made it difficult for large firms such as Shanghai Electric Power Corp. to comply, so the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission is putting 580,000 more up for sale in a one-off auction. The price floor for the auction will be announced June 27, but an official note indicated it will be no lower than 46 yuan ($7.41) per tonne. The Commission specified that permits at the auction should be used only for compliance, not trading. Shanghai’s is one of five carbon markets in Chinese cities.Read more here

 

Lucky number 7?
China launched its seventh and final planned pilot carbon market last week in the city of Chongqing along the Yangtze River. The municipal government issued a total of 125 million permits for free to cover the emissions of 242 companies in 2013, though the volume of permits will shrink by 4% per year. At the launch, 16 deals covering 145,000 tonnes were announced, with all permits priced at 30 to 31.5 yuan ($4.83 to $5.07) per tonne. Buyers, however, are not feeling squeezed by the regulation. “No one really needs to buy, and the permits are allocated in accordance with the emissions reported by the company itself so no one will have a shortage,” said one manager, speaking anonymously.Read more here

 

The power of resolve
The Board of the Consumer Goods Forum, a network of CEOs and senior management from about 400 companies representing combined sales of 2.5 trillion euros (US$3.4 trillion), last week called on the world’s government leaders to secure an ambitious and legally-binding climate change deal. The Board issued two climate change resolutions: one to phase out the powerful GHG hydrofluorocarbon from refrigeration installations by 2015 and another to help achieve zero net deforestation by 2020. The statement specifically called for market-based mechanisms, in particular the United Nations (UN) Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism, to achieve emissions reductions.Read more at Digital Journal
Read the resolutions

 

Carbon Finance

Deal or no deal
The UN’s Green Climate Fund decided on its rules for raising and spending funds last month, including a 50-50 split between adaptation and mitigation projects. Commitments are expected in the coming months to capitalize the fund at $10 billion or more, but hurdles remain. The European Union can’t give any money until it gets a seat on the board, and the fund cannot be used for extreme events such as Typhoon Haiyan recovery, which fall under ‘loss and damage’ provisions in the UN negotiations. Seeing finance flow is key to an international climate agreement, according to developing countries. “No money, no fund, no deal in Paris,” said Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, a senior negotiator from the Democratic Republic of Congo.Read more here

 

Island ambition
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono committed $20 million to combat climate change and boost the “green economy” in Pacific Island states. The announcement was made during the Pacific Islands Development Forum in Fiji. Indonesia has a target to cut its emissions 26% by 2020, or up to 41% with international support. REDD+ is a major part of its strategy. Indonesia’s REDD+ boss Heru Prasetyo spoke about his efforts to move massive numbers of hectares of palm oil production to degraded lands to keep forests intact in an exclusive interview with Ecosystem Marketplace published last month.Read more from Australia Network News
Read the interview with Pratseyo

 

Science & Technology

Capturing the lead
Graciela Chichilnisky, one of the masterminds behind the idea of an international carbon market and its inclusion in the UN Kyoto Protocol, is now CEO of Global Thermostat. The company is claiming what almost no one else has: that its carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology is commercially viable and scalable. Its pilot plant in Menlo Park, California uses inputs of air and heat to remove CO2 from the atmosphere as electricity is produced. The captured CO2 could be quantified and sold as carbon offsets, used to produce materials such as cement and plastic, or fed to algae for ethanol production, among other applications. The technology is patent-pending in more than 100 countries.Read more from Ecopreneurist
Read more about the technology

 

Mission possible
US space research agency NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) will launch the first CO2 monitoring satellite on July 1, from a California air base. It will orbit 438 miles above the Earth and its grading spectrometer will take daily CO2 measurements. “Data from this mission will help scientists reduce uncertainties in forecasts of how much carbon dioxide will be in the atmosphere and improve the accuracy of global climate change predictions,” said Michael Gunson, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The $465 million satellite mission is named Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, OCO-2 for short.Read more here

Featured Jobs

Air Pollution Specialist – California Air Resources Board
Based in Sacramento, California, the Specialist will evaluate and develop tools for analysis and monitoring of the emissions trading program, incentives, voluntary actions, offsets and other approaches to further the goals of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32). An ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience with environmental, energy, or commodities and derivatives markets.Read more here

 

Director of the Biodiversity Programme – Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI)
Based in Paris, France, the Director will be in charge of designing, organizing and implementing a renewed intervention strategy and responsible for managing the biodiversity programme team. A successful candidate will have a PhD in a field related to biodiversity and ecosystem management as well as 10 years of professional experience in research and policy-oriented organizations. Fluency in English and French is required.Read more here

 

Chief of Party – Chemonics
Based in the Dominican Republic, the Chief of Party will provide technical direction and management for a US Agency for International Development (USAID) project addressing investment in climate change adaptation in urban and rural settings, municipal planning, disaster and risk mitigation, and water resource management. An ideal candidate will have prior USAID chief of party experience. Fluency in Spanish and English is required.Read more here

 

Global Programmes Manager – The Gold Standard
Based in the United Kingdom, the Global Programmes Manager will act as the central point for a range of the Foundation’s technical and project delivery activities. The staffer will be responsible for coordinating, managing and providing technical and administrative support for the Gold Standard’s Technical Advisory Committee. A successful candidate will have demonstrated experience in project management, technical experience and a passion for sustainable development, and demonstrated stakeholder management skills.Read more here

 

Program Coordinator – Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
Based in New York, New York, the Program Coordinator will provide administrative, project management and program coordination support across all program areas. An ideal candidate will have three or more years of experience as a program coordinator in GHG mitigation programs, energy regulation, energy policy, electricity markets or similar subject areas.Read more here

ABOUT THE ECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE

Ecosystem Marketplace is a project of Forest Trends, a tax-exempt corporation under Section 501(c)3. This newsletter and other dimensions of our voluntary carbon markets program are funded by a series of international development agencies, philanthropic foundations, and private sector organizations. For more information on donating to Ecosystem Marketplace, please contact [email protected].

 


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Voluntary Carbon Market Stalls, But Buyers See Silver Lining

26 June 2014 | WASHINGTON DC | As Chief Sustainability Officer at the National Geographic Society, Hans Wegner uses voluntary carbon markets to offset those emissions the Society cannot eliminate. From his perspective, an oversupply of offsets in 2013 made it possible to choose only the very best offsets – meaning those that not only reduce emissions, but have knock-on “co-benefits” such as conserving habitat for endangered species.

“The good thing for people like us is that competition is also causing the value and the quality of the offsets to go up,” he said on Tuesday, as Ecosystem Marketplace presented findings from its State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2014 report at the offices of Hunton & Williams in Washington, DC. “For me, it’s really, really important – because credibility is so important to us as an organization – that we have everything verified, that we’ve purchased offsets of high value that are accounted for.

Now in its eighth year, the report tracks trends in voluntary carbon offsetting and serves as a bellwether for how and why corporations and governments are using market-based mechanisms to address climate change. In 2013, for the first time, pursuit of a climate-driven mission was the second most common buyer motivation, after resale.

“We theorize that this is because the climate surpassed some pretty dangerous thresholds last year,” said Ecosystem Marketplace Director Molly Peters-Stanley. “Based on interviews we’d had with offset suppliers, they say that the companies in the marketplace are more comfortable talking about the real risks that they face from climate change.”

Presentation slides with new data available here.

For buyers such as the National Geographic Society, which use carbon offsetting in conjunction with various efforts to reduce fossil fuel, water, and materials use – and as a way to invest in critical landscapes around the world – market dynamics are such that they are getting many more calls from offset suppliers with impressive projects. Since National Geographic has direct control over only 4% of its emissions, the Society is purchasing offsets on behalf of its paper and other suppliers to neutralize its ‘scope 3’ or supply chain emissions. It also sees this as a way to spread the concept of offsetting beyond its doors.

Tonnes in Transition

In a year in which offset supply outstripped demand, suppliers able to demonstrate multiple benefits of their projects in addition to emissions reduction sometimes fared better. Offsets sourced from forestry and land use projects for the first time surpassed renewable energy as the most popular project type, with $126 million flowing to projects that address the drivers of deforestation, plant new forests or improve the management of existing ones. Many of these projects deliver benefits beyond emissions reductions such as protecting biodiversity hot spots, ensuring water quality and employing local people.

“There are good opportunities for those that add value and bring some new ideas to the market,” said Christian Dannecker, Director of Forestry at South Pole Group. “There is growth, but it’s much more diversified into different products and different transaction types than before, it won’t be only VERs (verified emissions reductions).”

The average price for offsets fell to just below the $5 mark in 2013, a dollar down from 2012, according to the State of report. Dannecker noted that the lower prices may have opened up opportunities to new market participants in emerging economies, such as the Colombian buyers they work with. For popular project types such as Verified Carbon Standard REDD and Gold Standard cookstoves and water filters, earlier stage projects fetched higher prices than those already issuing offsets – an important shift from previous years, when early-stage projects were viewed as risky rather than unique.

Compliance Markets Step in…

Buyers spent $379 million on 76 million tonnes worth of carbon offsets in 2013 – equivalent to taking 16 million cars off the road. This represents a sizeable drop in demand from the 101 million tonnes of offsets transacted in 2012, though as Peters-Stanley explained, a few factors are at play behind the scenes.

A look at voluntary offsetting over the years shows that pre-compliance transactions, or those that occur in anticipation of regulation, have played a significant role in past years, especially as buyers geared up for California’s cap-and-trade law and Australia’s carbon pricing mechanism. Pre-compliance activity in both of these markets was minimal in 2013, but for different reasons: In California, the compliance market has taken off, slurping up voluntary activity, whereas Australia’s carbon tax has floundered under political pressure. Also, offsets from Chicago Climate Exchange’s (CCX) legacy registry were traded on only one day in 2013, with small transactions volumes. The CCX was a voluntary but binding market, driven by commitments that were mostly made in pre-2010 anticipation of nationwide cap-and-trade in the U.S.

“The total drop that we saw in the marketplace last year is not necessarily related to a decrease in purely voluntary demand for offsets,” Peters-Stanley explained. “If we were to attribute a proportion to the actual purely voluntary activity in the marketplace that fell, it would be about 5%, versus the 26% that we have to report as the headline numbers. So it’s important to keep the more technical aspects of our findings in mind.”

…But Also Expand the Pie

The report findings also indicate that compliance markets can actually help to ‘expand the pie’ of demand for the voluntary market. European buyers were again the largest source of voluntary offset demand in 2013 despite the fact that the European Union (EU ETS) already caps the emissions of 11,000 companies. This may be because of what could be called ‘awareness-driven offsetting’: as reducing emissions through carbon investments is normalized under compliance, companies become familiar with the marketplace and also use offsetting as part of their sustainability efforts.

Though the EU ETS, the world’s largest compliance carbon market, excludes offsets from forestry, California’s new cap-and-trade market has welcomed them. The Yurok tribe issued the first compliance offsets under the Californian program in April from an improved forest management project on tribal lands.

“It’s very encouraging to see forest carbon offsets not only accepted in California, but also issued and retired,” said McFarland, who hopes that California’s Air Resources Board – the regulatory body charged with overseeing the cap-and-trade program – will move forward with an announcement to accept REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of forests) offsets from Acre, Brazil and Chiapas, Mexico into the compliance program.


A live recording of the presentation is available
here.
Additional resources

How A Primatologist, An Industrialist, And An Ecosystem Entrepreneur Took On Big Palm Oil And Won

This article is second in a series.

 

23 June 2014 | Pak Ahmed has a little game he used to play, sometimes by himself, and sometimes with friends.

He’d begin just after the sun woke the sky above his village of Telaga Pulang, which stands on stilts along the eastern bank of Borneo’s Seruyan River. He’d continue as he rolled his first cigarette of the day and traversed the wooden bridge to the boardwalk that serves as the village’s spine. Then he’d climb into his hand-hewn  klotok,  fire its engine, and klatok-tok-tokk out into the broad, dead river – where he knew the game would end, and not the way he hoped.

 High tide in Telaga Pulang

High tide in Telaga Pulang

Soon, children would be clattering along the elevated structure in their school uniforms, and their mothers would gather outside the two shacks that serve as general stores, each stocked with soaps, salves, and other sundries derived from the product that was slowly enslaving them.

“Before Palm Oil came, we fished from about 6am to noon, and then relaxed,” he says. “Sometimes, we hunted in the woods in the afternoon.”

Like most of the people of Telaga Pulang, he speaks of the product as if it were a sentient entity devouring the forest. For them, Palm Oil isn’t just a fatty acid used in toothpaste and cereal. It’s a proper noun encompassing the product, the plantations, the imported workers, and the dead river.

Palm Oil, he explains, came to this part of Borneo in 2005, when workers carved shallow drainage canals into the soft peat soil on the western bank of the river, across from Telaga Pulang. Then they strategically removed teak and other choice timbers before grinding 10,000 hectares of forest into pulp, murdering any orangutans who got in their way and kidnapping the now-homeless sun bears, clouded leopards and gibbon apes, which they sold as exotic pets.

 Pak Ahmed (center) and other fishermen discuss the impact that Palm Oil has had on their livelihood

Pak Ahmed (center) and other fishermen discuss the impact that Palm Oil has had on their livelihood

After dispatching the forest and its inhabitants, the workers inserted palm saplings as far as Pak Ahmed could see. Then they fertilized the saplings, and the fertilizer dribbled down the canals and into the river, where it fed massive algae blooms that killed the fish and destroyed the economy of his village. Mines came, too, and their poisons killed more fish, so upstream fishermen began dropping explosives instead of nets, depleting the stocks even further.

Yet, as he pulled his bamboo cage up out of the water on this day in 2007, Pak Ahmed still indulged that little tingle of hope that kept him coming back day after day, week after week – for months after the rest of his family and most of his neighbors had gone to work for Palm Oil. That tingle was to him what the unturned card was to the blackjack addict, and it was the only prize his game ever yielded anymore, because the game was this: as he awakened and rowed and worked, Pak Ahmed tried to pretend that he didn’t know what he’d find when he pulled his bamboo traps up from those dead waters.

Before the mud parted and the cage emerged into the light, he could still imagine it was 2005 instead of 2007.

 An unidentified fisherman in Pak Ahmed's village puts the finishing touches on a new trap.

An unidentified fisherman in Pak Ahmed’s village puts the finishing touches on a new trap.

But eventually the  cage did emerge, and in it Pak Ahmed saw what he knew he’d see: dozens of baby “fingerlings” flopping desperately in a basket designed for one or two fat adults 100 times their size. In terms of saleable product, his hauls were down 90%, and it was about to get worse.

A company called PT Best had laid claim to the entire Seruyan Forest, which is a massive natural filtration system that regulates water flows and provides non-timber forest products like honey, wax, and wild rubber for hundreds of other villagers. It also acts as a protective buffer to a quarter-million hectares of peat forest in the Tanjung Puting National park, which means its destruction would affect the rest of us, too.

That’s because peat is a thick, rich loam of decaying plants that have been accumulating for thousands of years, locking up carbon in the process. If the peatland went, it would release hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.

 Canals drain the peat and push fertilizer into the river.

Canals drain the peat and push fertilizer into the river .

Eight thousand miles to the west, Biruté Galdikas was engaged in her own variation of the game as she frantically zipped between appointments in Los Angeles, where she’d gone in a futile effort to raise the money she needed to save Pak Ahmed’s forest.

Like the Seruyan River, the City of Angels had been a fertile fishing ground. It served as Galdikas’s fundraising hub and helped her build Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) into a bulwark against the slaughter of orangutans in the Tanjung Puting.

Unlike the Seruyan, however, Los Angeles hadn’t stopped delivering. It had simply been eclipsed by Palm Oil, which generates roughly $1 million in profit per year for every thousand hectares harvested. That’s  more than OFI’s entire operating budget, and PT Best had a license to convert 150,000 hectares of forest to palm-oil plantation. Each of those hectares would become another cog in a cash machine that Galdikas knew she could never match. Yet, like Pak Ahmed, she kept going back to the source that had served her so well, day after day, week after week, month after month.

 Birute Galdikas and friend

Birute Galdikas and friend.

That’s what she was doing when her phone rang.

“I remember it clearly,” she says. “This man says he’s calling from Shanghai, China, and he won’t stop talking, won’t let me get a word in edgewise, and then he asks me – and I’ll never forget this – he asks me if there’s a forest that needs to be saved.”

The man’s name was Todd Lemons, a serial entrepreneur from the United States who’d grown up listening to his grandfather’s tales of his adventures in the Amazon and reading National Geographic. It was on the magazine’s October, 1975 cover that he first encountered Galdikas. Although less than 30 years old when the photo was taken, she was already a rock star in the world of primatology, and she looked the part. Strikingly attractive, her gaze was brooding and world-weary and motherly all at once. A baby orangutan clung to her neck, and an adolescent lolled playfully in front of her. Both were orphans, and both had suffered the trauma of seeing their mothers murdered before their eyes.

 Birute Galdikas with two orphaned orangutans.

Birute Galdikas with two orphaned orangutans.

She was one of three researchers known then as the “Trimates”, the others being Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey. The name came from their mentor, Louis Leakey, who had helped Galdikas launch the operation that would become OFI. Over the decades, she had rescued and rehabilitated thousands of orphaned orangutans, and in 2001 she asked for permission to expand into the Seruyan Forest.

Her application, however, disappeared into the local bureaucracy, and a few years later she learned that PT Best, working through subsidiaries, had gotten concessions to convert the entire forest into a palm-oil plantation. Now, with one hand on her steering wheel and the other holding her phone to her ear as she navigated Los Angeles traffic, she was fighting to save the forest from certain destruction.

“When Todd called, I thought it was like a deus ex machina – you know, like in the old Greek plays? When the writer got himself into a mess, he’d lower Zeus down in a machine, and he’d pop out and save the day,” she says. “But then he  started going on and on about how trees capture carbon and people would pay us to save the trees to stop global warming, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, a carbon cowboy.'”

Still, something kept her on the phone. Maybe it was his knowledge of forestry. Or maybe it was just curiosity on her part. Whatever it was, when they hung up, she’d pegged him as sincere and knowlegeable about the timber trade –  but naí¯ve about the rest of the world.

He called again about a week later, this time from his home in Hong Kong, and caught her on her way to Los Angeles International Airport.

“I was in a hurry,” she says. “So I told him that if he was serious, he’d have to come and visit me in in Pangkalan Bun.”

About a week after that, she heard a knock on her door. It was Lemons.

Next Week: Who is Todd Lemons?

Biof­lica: Futbol Shines Light On Brazil’s Forests

As fºtbol fans tune in for the World Cup, host country Brazil’s emissions have also been in the spotlight. The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) pledged to offset all direct emissions from the event, while local companies and foreign visitors alike have been encouraged to offset their impact. Local project developer, Mariama Vendramini of Biof­lica, says this represents one of several initiatives that has helped increase domestic interest in forestry offsets.

18 June 2014 | While emissions reduction projects are dispersed across the world’s fifth largest country, recent initiatives have caught the attention of local businesses. In addition to FIFA’s offsetting goals, Brazil has encouraged private companies to donate offsets for the World Cup. So far, 11 companies have received a Low Carbon seal – representing 30% of the estimated emissions generated – to use in advertising during the games. This marks the first time private sector donations have been used in the quadrennial event.

Last year, offsetting in Brazil also scored international headlines when the Brazilian costmetics giant Natura Cosmeticos purchased 120,000 tonnes of carbon from the Paiter-Surui people. The project marked the first indigenous REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) project in the world.

Mariama Vendramini, Finance and Commercial Director of Biof­lica, spoke to Ecosystem Marketplace’s Kelley Hamrick about the impact of these and other trends in Brazil. Biof­lica, a Brazilian company working to conserve the rainforest through environmental markets, has currently invested in and developed five REDD projects throughout Brazil’s western states.

KH: What have you seen in the Brazilian market this year? MV: We’ve been seeing a scattered market. We’ve seen demand mostly for small volumes and corporate social responsibility (CSR) purposes. We have our national plan on climate change that, within other activities, sets a cap on important sectors of Brazil’s economy: the largest emitters from sectors such as industry, agriculture, mining and transportation. So far they are in the phase of inventories development. On average and except land use, they have a 5% reduction target over the estimated level of emissions in 2020 considering 2005 as a base year. So that’s what’s happening on the compliance side. While this happens, companies that are more consumer-driven will do their CSR activities and some of them are considering offsets. So there are a few companies that have been steadily buying volumes on the voluntary market.

KH: It sounds like most are domestic?

MV: We have domestic companies but we also have Brazilian branches and subsidiaries of multi-nationals. So it’s not only Brazilians, but Brazilian companies are main front runners in sustainability. All are still learning what REDD+ is. We’ve found a little bit of skepticism from these companies because REDD+ was out of Clean Development Mechanism and we had all these struggles with technical aspects. But this changed as companies are getting to know more about REDD+, technical issues have been rapidly evolving and as the Warsaw Platform for REDD+ brought legitimacy by turning REDD+ into a wide accepted tool to tackle climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. People are getting to know REDD+ better and understanding that projects and programs on the ground need to be carried out so that local realities can be changed and result in aggregate decline of deforestation.

Natura, a Brazilian company, bought significant amounts from the Surui project last year and this was good as a signal to other companies. Other examples come from the Brazilian chain of gas stations Ipiranga, Brazilian subsidiaries of the French Ticket Edenred and of the Spanish Santander. There are other companies moving the market with lower volumes still but as they get to know the mechanism more, they are getting more interested. But we’re still on the way with it. There are a few issues that need to be demystified: first is the carbon management itself, then the use of offsets and afterwards advancing towards REDD+ as a high value added type of offset. This is where we are in the Brazilian market today.

KH: The World Cup might help with awareness, right?

MV: Exactly. And we see that there are a few prompts that are being developed in parallel with each other. There is the Brazilian government buying CERs and asking for companies to donate those CERs to be retired in the name of the government. An official stamp will then certify to the public that Brazil’s official emissions were made neutral.
There’s also FIFA’s initiative to offset their emissions in a program managed by BP Target Neutral. Then there are other initiatives driven by sponsors on their own emissions, such as the one done by TAM Airlines on offsetting their flights during the World Cup.

KH: Any other developments?

MV: We are also working with IPAM and GCP on the development of a Brazilian business case for an interim finance facility for REDD+. It would work as a linkage between what we have of forest supply that is being developed until 2020 and the potential Brazilian emissions reductions market that we are assuming will start operating in 2020. Our climate change national policy already mentions a Brazilian market as a tool to reduce emissions, and we are building upon that with a proposition of a viable mechanism to finance forestry emissions reductions generated until 2020. We’re working in many ways to scale up demand for REDD+.

KH: What are your future predictions about demand? Will these policies help?

MV: Demand will rise as public awareness grows with examples such as the World Cup’s, Natura’s and other companies’ activities on the voluntary market. And it has a shifting potential with a push from the to-be-established Paris agreement. Despite of the level of commitment to be assumed, we are already seeing the development of local mechanisms to price carbon that are popping up around the world pushed by this trend. We are seeing it happening within countries that had no reductions commitments under Kyoto. New pricing mechanisms being established around the world, recognition of REDD+ under the Convention and the increasing gap of emissions reductions needed to be made to keep us under a secure level or temperature increase put us in a path where demand for REDD+ will have to scale up.

 

This Week In Biodiversity: Global Summit On No Net Loss In London

Natural capital accounting is generating a lot of attention lately with a new report warning companies of the perils of ignoring natural capital risk while the World Bank-led WAVES initiative is noting some advancements in the space. And BBOP is back from the London Zoo with feedback on the no net loss of biodiversity summit.

This article was originally published in the Mit Mail newsletter. Click here to read the original.

13 June 2014 | Greetings! We’re back from London, where earlier this month Forest Trends, the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme, the Zoological Society of London, and Defra hosted an overflow crowd at the To No Net Loss of Biodiversity and Beyond summit.

Offsetting has been more than a little controversial in the UK and elsewhere, and that debate was front and center at the meeting in London. In advance of the summit, a counter-workshop was organized nearby by environmental groups. And inside the conference, a special session was organized to give critics a chance to air their views.


There are still a lot of questions on how best to move forward on offsetting (with some preferring not to move forward at all), but at the summit we saw efforts to find a middle ground. At an ‘Opportunity or Peril’ debate, signs of agreement started to surface by the end of the discussion. Most panelists reiterated that good planning and the mitigation hierarchy were of primary importance. In fact, one audience member pointed out that perhaps “biodiversity offsets” were receiving the brunt of what was probably much broader discontent with weakening in land planning and environmental protection – in England at least. There was also agreement that success requires that the mitigation hierarchy be reinforced with clear legislation and strong enforcement, as seen in the German and US systems. Some skepticism remained that offsets in isolation could be positive, and would not lead to easing of protections and even corrupt environmental NGOs with a dependence on destruction-based funding.


Of course, design matters just as much as implementation does. As Morgan Robertson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wetlandia blog told the counter-workshop, “You get what you measure in offsetting, and usually you are measuring the wrong thing.”

Biodiversity offset pilots in the UK and a proposed national framework offer an opportunity to “seize this moment of measurement,” and have a robust debate that clears up misconceptions and addresses legitimate concerns about offsets. A piece in the Guardian wonders whether the UK government and other stakeholders have the appetite to continue that conversation. We hope so. One place to start is the current consultation on an EU-level No Net Loss Initiative that recently opened, seeking public input on introducing a continent-wide mitigation hierarchy to reverse ongoing biodiversity decline – including whether to utilize offset mechanisms.

Other conference highlights included sessions on designing and implementing national or regional ‘No Net Loss’ frameworks, stacking and bundling of ecosystem services, and an incredible quantity of experience shared by practitioners from around the world. Stay tuned for video interviews and other conference footage – they’re in the editing room and will be made available soon at Ecosystem Marketplace.


In other news this month, an historic ecosystem services compensation law has finally passed in Peru, while in Queensland, Australia a new Offsets Act promises to streamline offset approvals.


Natural capital accounting has also been in the news a lot recently, with a new review of the World Bank-led WAVES (Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services) Partnership citing some recent achievements in implementing natural capital accounting at the country level (like in the Philippines) and engaging the private sector. Businesses ignore natural capital at their peril, warns a new report that finds a bevy of challenges – unsustainable profit levels, cash flow problems, supply chain risk and reputational damages – for firms that fail to account for natural capital.

 

—The Ecosystem Marketplace Team

If you have comments or would like to submit news stories, write to us at [email protected].


EM Exclusives

Peruvian Congress passes historic ecosystem services law

Six years in the making, Peru’s new Ecosystem Services Law passed last week, providing a comprehensive legal framework for the sticky issue of payments for ecosystem services. It is one of the most advanced pieces of legislation of its type, but had been stuck in committee for five years. Peru’s National Congress passed the country’s ground-breaking Payments for Ecosystem Services Law (Ley de Mecanismos de Retribucií³n por Servicios Ecosistémicos) with 83 votes in favor and none against, with no abstentions, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Environment.

 

The law provides a legal framework to support a diverse range of ecosystem services – including greenhouse gas emissions reductions, biodiversity conservation and the preservation of natural beauty. Investments in watershed services (IWS), an already popular water management method in the country, have also been incorporated into the proposal.

 

There are two parties involved in the compensation process that the law lays out. The first are land stewards – farmers, indigenous peoples, landowners and individuals involved in ecotourism, who act as the receivers of ecosystem services. The other group – mostly civil society, businesses and municipalities – are the payers. They compensate the land stewards to practice sustainable land-use. These sustainable practices ensure businesses and cities will have the ecosystem services, like clean water and air, that they need to survive and thrive.

 

The government will be responsible for identifying the payers and also for administering the compensation process.

Read more at Ecosystem Marketplace.

The water-energy-food nexus: Interlinked solutions for interlinked challenges

Ecosystem Marketplace is launching a series of stories leading up to the State of Watershed Payments 2014 report release date that looks at global challenges related to the nexus and the various approaches businesses, government and the world as a whole are taking to address this issue.


In the latest article in the series, we take a look at how our demands for energy, food and water all drive each other, and how we can prevent them from driving in the wrong direction. We examine cases from India to California to sketch out what, exactly, the “nexus challenge” is, and how we can meet it. (Hint: it involves putting nature in the nexus.)

Keep reading.


Mitigation News

 

 

EM Exclusives

Peruvian Congress passes historic ecosystem services law

Six years in the making, Peru’s new Ecosystem Services Law passed last week, providing a comprehensive legal framework for the sticky issue of payments for ecosystem services. It is one of the most advanced pieces of legislation of its type, but had been stuck in committee for five years. Peru’s National Congress passed the country’s ground-breaking Payments for Ecosystem Services Law (Ley de Mecanismos de Retribucií³n por Servicios Ecosistémicos) with 83 votes in favor and none against, with no abstentions, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Environment.

 

The law provides a legal framework to support a diverse range of ecosystem services – including greenhouse gas emissions reductions, biodiversity conservation and the preservation of natural beauty. Investments in watershed services (IWS), an already popular water management method in the country, have also been incorporated into the proposal.

 

There are two parties involved in the compensation process that the law lays out. The first are land stewards – farmers, indigenous peoples, landowners and individuals involved in ecotourism, who act as the receivers of ecosystem services. The other group – mostly civil society, businesses and municipalities – are the payers. They compensate the land stewards to practice sustainable land-use. These sustainable practices ensure businesses and cities will have the ecosystem services, like clean water and air, that they need to survive and thrive.

 

The government will be responsible for identifying the payers and also for administering the compensation process.

Read more at Ecosystem Marketplace.

The water-energy-food nexus: Interlinked solutions for interlinked challenges

Ecosystem Marketplace is launching a series of stories leading up to the State of Watershed Payments 2014 report release date that looks at global challenges related to the nexus and the various approaches businesses, government and the world as a whole are taking to address this issue.


In the latest article in the series, we take a look at how our demands for energy, food and water all drive each other, and how we can prevent them from driving in the wrong direction. We examine cases from India to California to sketch out what, exactly, the “nexus challenge” is, and how we can meet it. (Hint: it involves putting nature in the nexus.)

Keep reading.


Mitigation News

Queensland trims the fat with new offset law

Queensland’s new Environmental Offsets Act, passed in late May, will replace five separate existing offset policies in the state with a single framework. It also tightens the conditions under which an offset can be required. Under the new Act, an administering agency may not impose offset conditions for areas where an offset is already required by the Commonwealth (i.e. the national government), or where the Commonwealth has determined an offset is not required. Proponents also now have a choice between delivering their own offset, making a financial settlement, or a combination of the two. The new legislation has supporters in both the public and environmental spheres, who are heartened by the prospect of a more efficient offsetting process. The Act is expected to take effect in mid-2014.

Read legal analysis from Clayton Utz at Lexology.
Get coverage of the Act’s reception here.

Is private money the missing link for coastal restoration?

Private investment could fill in the funding gap for conservation and wetland restoration activities. That’s being demonstrated in southeastern Louisiana where $181 million of private money was invested into the East Orleans Land Bridge project. The project area, which includes a wetland mitigation bank, will dredge sediment and rebuild marshes. And with private investors, the restoration process should be speedier than when dealing with government funding.


America’s Wetland Foundation is promoting the private investment strategy and involved in coastal restoration projects that connects investors with private landowners. “There are large investment funds that are looking for this kind of investment,” Val Marmillion, the foundation’s managing director, told the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation last week.

Read more at the New Orleans Advocate.

European Commission seeks input on a No Net Loss initiative

A European Commission consultation has opened seeking public input on achieving ‘no net loss’ of biodiversity on the continent. Despite a range of policy measures protecting biodiversity on the continent, ecosystems and species continue to decline. An EU-level ‘No Net Loss’ initiative, envisioned as part of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, would enshrine a mitigation hierarchy (avoid, minimize, then mitigate) in planning. The consultation is open until September 26th.

Read a press release.
View the consultation.

Natural capital accounting receives high marks on progress report

Natural capital accounting (NCA) is taking off, it seems, with the World Bank-led WAVES (Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services) Partnership seeing potential for it to influence environmental policy and reach new corners of the globe. WAVES recently released its Annual Report 2014 and notes some key achievements. Among them are the inclusions of three new core implementing nations (Indonesia, Guatemala and Rwanda) and a rise in private sector engagement. Partnerships that helped spread awareness and individual progress reports on several countries are also highlighted. The goal of WAVES is to promote sustainable growth by mainstreaming NCA and integrating it into economic policy and development planning.

Learn more.
Read the Annual Report 2014 here (pdf).

The Philippines assess natural capital with help from WAVES

In order for a nation to continue to grow and prosper, its economy must be based on sustainable practices. Activities that degrade ecosystems and the natural services they provide, like clean water and forests products, leave nations vulnerable to environmental risks and an uncertain future. To gain a better understanding of how the natural world contributes to national wellbeing, the Philippines’ National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is examining natural capital accounting (NCA). While the effort is still in preliminary stages, NEDA says it will allow them to better understand impacts from development and opportunities to replenish natural capital. The Philippines is participating in the WAVES (Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services) Partnership – a World Bank-led initiative aiming to integrate NCA into policy planning – and will continue to collect data and learn more as case studies in the Philippines and other countries unfold.

WAVES is an international partnership specifically aimed at delivering sustainable natural resource management to policymakers in terms they can understand. It is a collaborative worldwide project that uses applied research to better understand the loss of ecosystem capital and the implications those losses have on people.

Business World Online has coverage.

A case for habitat banking in Colombia

Recent studies from Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the UN Programme for Development (UNDP) suggest that industrial growth in Colombia is outpacing environmental protection. Coal mining permits grew by 87 percent between 2004-2008, for example. Land included in mining applications amounts to more than a third of the country’s area. Rules for compensation and environmental penalties exist, but they are poorly tracked and enforced.


A new report from NGO Fundepíºblico proposes a path toward no net loss, through the introduction of habitat banking in Colombia. “In Colombia there are enough areas with clear title that are inappropriate for agriculture, and could be used for protection and conservation,” Mariana Sarmiento, author of the report, tells Semana Sostenible. “Banking has a clear record in other countries. It is a viable solution for Colombia and it’s important to begin this discussion,” she says.

Read the article and learn more about Fundepíºblico’s report at Semana Sostenible (in Spanish).

Ignoring natural capital risk means big losses for business

“If we continue operating ‘business as usual,’ by 2030 it is estimated that we will need the natural capital equivalent of two planets to sustain ourselves,” says a recent report authored by a collaboration of institutions, including the Natural Capital Coalition. But most businesses don’t account for their natural capital as they do for their financial assets. This is dangerous because the report found that companies that do nothing face unsustainable profit levels, cash flow problems, risks to their supply chains and damage to their reputations.


There are several well-known companies taking initiative, however. Coca-Cola, for instance, has pledged to replenish back to the Earth as much water as it uses by 2020, and Dow Chemical Co. is piloting a project in Brazil meant to assess the economic value of ecosystem services. And it’s not just businesses with direct impacts that need to play a bigger role. Accountants have a responsibility to integrate natural capital accounting into their organization. The report laid out recommendations for accountants to achieve this. They include framing risks and opportunities in business terms, and embedding natural capital into corporate decision-making.

Read more at Bloomberg.

Oregon ranchers seek ways to conserve Greater Sage-Grouse habitat

The greater sage-grouse is a candidate species under the Endangered Species Act and one of several animals the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will make a listing decision on in the near future. For the greater sage-grouse, the decision will come in the fall of 2015. In the meantime, many of the eleven states that contain the bird’s habitat are going ahead with conservation plans in an attempt to prevent an endangered or threatened status.


One of these states is Oregon. The state holds some of the best remaining grouse habitat but that same territory also supports vast ranching operations. Those operations contribute heavily to Oregon’s economy. Because of this contradiction the state is attempting to establish Candidate for Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAAs) in Oregon’s largest county, covering over a million acres of private land. Under the agreements, landowners agree to voluntarily manage their property in sage-grouse friendly ways. In return, they won’t be subject to future regulatory requirements if the bird is listed. For the most part, reaching agreements and implementing CCAAs has gone smoothly between private landowners and FWS officials. That success has helped officials branch out across the state, introducing CCAAs for sage-grouse in other Oregon counties.

Outdoor Life has the story.

“Green” EU agricultural reforms are bad news for biodiversity, say experts

New Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) “greening” reforms are not so green, say experts. A new study published in Science shows that 80-90% of farmers could be exempt from new environmental requirements, and that budgets to encourage voluntary conservation are shrinking. Rules for environmental measures, while in theory a positive step, “are so vague as to be useless,” as the BBC puts it. “The new greening measures will not work,” co-author Dr Lynn Dicks of the University of Cambridge tells Agriland. “They simply promote the establishment of grass monocultures. Yes, reference is made to the planting of hedges. But no encouragement is given, so as to ensure that new hedging is managed properly. It’s all pretty self-defeating.” And the reforms do little to protect grasslands, the continent’s most endangered habitat. The report estimates that under the new rules five percent of grassland will likely be lost.

Keep reading at BBC News.

New book makes the case for PES

Degraded landscapes, endangered species and depleted oceans indicate that the Earth is in need of care, but finding the funds in order to deliver the care is difficult. A new book, Global Biodiversity Finance: The Case for International Payments for Ecosystem Services, proposes new global markets for ecosystem services that could finance and deliver conservation. The book argues the current spending on global conservation – which primarily comes from NGOs and government – is just not sufficient to maintain healthy ecosystems. The private sector must play a role here, the book says, by sustainably managing their natural assets. Moreover, recognizing humanity’s dependence on ecosystem services and initiating a transparent and publicly-accountable supply of conservation projects will increase funding flowing toward conservation work.

Read all about it at the Forbes blog.

A guide to building blue carbon projects

The Abu Dhabi Blue Carbon demonstration project recently released an introductory guide to building blue carbon projects. “Blue carbon” – the carbon sequestered by marine and coastal ecosystems like mangroves, saltwater marshes, and seagrass meadows – is both a highly efficient climate mitigation strategy, and (potentially) the key to saving these rapidly disappearing ecosystems. The authors stress that the report is not a step-by-step guide: blue carbon is a relative newcomer in the world of climate mitigation projects and much remains to be learned in terms of both the science and best practices. The report, however, does identify basic project phases and some key considerations. It also discusses elements of project success, lessons to be learned from REDD+, and how a ‘ridges to reefs’ approach could enhance resilience and productivity of coastal and marine systems.

Download the report (pdf).

The roundup

Finally – a few brief items from around the web:

 

EVENTS

 

Conference on Ecological and Ecosystem Restoration

CEER is a Collaborative Effort of the leaders of the National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration (NCER) and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). It will bring together ecological and ecosystem restoration scientists and practitioners to address challenges and share information about restoration projects, programs, and research from across North America. Across the continent, centuries of unsustainable activities have damaged the aquatic, marine, and terrestrial environments that underpin our economies and societies and give rise to a diversity of wildlife and plants. This conference supports SER and NCER efforts to reverse environmental degradation by renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats for the benefit of humans and nature. CEER is an interdisciplinary conference and brings together scientists, engineers, policy makers, restoration planners, partners, NGO’s and stakeholders from across the country actively involved in ecological and ecosystem restoration. 28 July – 1 August 2014. New Orleans, LA.

Learn more here.

16th Annual BIOECON Conference: Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability

The BIOECON Partners are pleased to announce the Sixteenth Annual International BIOECON conference on the theme of “Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability”. The conference will be held once again on the premises of Kings College Cambridge, England on the 22nd -23rd September 2014. The conference will be of interest to both researchers and policy makers working on issues broadly in the area of biodiversity, ecosystem services, sustainable development and natural capital, in both developed and developing countries. 21-23 September 2014. Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Learn more here.

ACES 2014 Conference: Linking Science, Practice, and Decision Making

ACES: A Community on Ecosystem Services represents a dynamic and growing assembly of professionals, researchers, and policy makers involved with ecosystem services. The ACES 2014 Conference brings together this community in partnership with Ecosystem Markets and the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP), providing an open forum to share experiences, methods, and tools, for assessing and incorporating ecosystem services into public and private decisions. The focus of the conference is to link science, practice, and sustainable decision making by bringing together the ecosystem services communit

Additional resources

Carbon Market Participants: We Must Raise Awareness, Spark Private-Sector Demand

 

ClimateCare’s Hanrahan: We Need to be Creative

12 June 2014 | Ed Hanrahan last week praised the  German Development Bank’s commitment to finance forest carbon emissions reductions in the Brazilian state of Acre, but he cautioned project developers against getting too excited about such public sector per-tonne “payments for performance” – which varies slightly from traditional carbon offsetting but achieves the same end result.

“It’s great to see direct investment like we saw in Acre,” said Hanrahan, who is  CEO of project developer ClimateCare. “But government support would be a lot more effective if it came in an indirect fashion, which would make it worthwhile for corporates to take responsibilities for their residual emissions and offsets.”

Jason Patrick, Investment Director of the BioCarbon Group, agreed.

“Unless you believe that governments not only will take sufficient action but have the dollars to do so, then we need to have private sector engagement,” he said. “The offset market is clearly a critical part of that.”

Both were speaking at a sneak preview of the latest  Ecosystem Marketplace State of Voluntary Carbon Markets report, which was offered at  Carbon Expo  last week in Cologne, Germany. The full report will be released later this month, but last week’s numbers showed that corporate demand for purely voluntary carbon offsetting went slightly south in 2013 (down 5%). That this market fall wasn’t more dramatic demonstrates resiliency in a difficult market  – as well as loyalty from companies that have long offset their emissions and continued to do so, but it also reflects the market’s failure to engage new buyers, despite a rising number of green pledges.

“Large corporates have little incentive to take full responsibility for their emissions, because there is no pressure from customers at the moment, and there is limited pressure or incentive from government,” said Hanrahan.

Patrick divided corporates into two broad categories: those that have no interest in being green unless someone pushes them and those that are making serious efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Of the latter, he says, most stop at reducing emissions internally and fail to offset what they can’t eliminate.

“We see a lot of companies buying renewable power or implementing efficiency programs,” he said. “That sort of thing puts firm dollars to work internally, and we should applaud that, but our message ought to be that’s clearly not going to be enough. There’s almost no firm that can, via direct action, offset sufficiently to handle its entire footprint. We as an industry need to keep firms focused on the idea that offsets have a real place in their sustainability portfolio – not as way to avoid making internal reductions, but as a way to offset what they can’t reduce.”

Hanrahan criticized the sector at large for failing to get that message out earlier.

“We should have been able to catch the imagination of more than we have,” he said, calling  for more engagement with existing efforts like the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

“We have organizations like the CDP, and they do great work in bringing corporates together and identifying emissions, but the offset community and the carbon market community pretty much sit outside their sphere of interest,” he said. “There’s very little validation given to what we’re doing here, as a source of reducing emissions.”

Both also welcomed US President Barack Obama’s plan to impose emissions limits on the US power sector and to allow cap-and-trade for some reductions, but they said they’d like to see government interventions built based on available options rather than political expediency.

“When governments are considering their appropriate mitigation actions, they ought to focus on where the reductions and investments are today – not just where they’ll be after some programmatic activity that might take two or three years,” said Patrick. “For example, there is a lot of focus in the forest carbon programs today on jurisdictional [i.e. regional] programs, and that’s fantastic – they’re conceptually sound – but the problem is that outside of Acre, there are no jurisdictional programs.  So, unless you think, we’re going to put off our actions for the two or three years that it takes to develop these programs in five, 10, or 20 jurisdictions around the world, we should look at what already exists.”

He also encouraged project developers to look at new sources of buying, such as impact investors.

“One of the key success stories we’ve started to see is in the impact investment market, which is completely different from the voluntary carbon market,” he said. “But a lot of the objectives of that market are starting to tally on a line with the original objective of the voluntary carbon market and with what has been achieved here. So, I think we as a market would do very well to tie ourselves in much more closely with that market instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.”

Additional resources

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Interlinked Solutions For Interlinked Challenges

 

11 June 2014 | India is one of the world’s biggest users of groundwater, but the aquifers that store much of its freshwater are overused, slow to replenish and rapidly depleting. That’s because the country’s rapidly-expanding middle class has boosted its farms, which are stretching its water resources beyond capacity. The same thing is happening in energy, which uses water for cooling thermal power plants. If India doesn’t address its water challenges, it won’t be able to support its growth in both the food and energy sector – and thus its evolution as a nation.

And the country is far from alone. In China, where water distribution is woefully imbalanced, the dry desert-like north contains most of the croplands but only 16% of the freshwater. Natural resources are constrained throughout the nation, and the extraction activities that do take place have a big impact on groundwater and other water sources by significantly depleting them. Energy development often competes with the agriculture sector for water use.

Likewise in the United States, large-scale agriculture projects in California earn billions of dollars but also require enormous amounts of water – which, in a place like California, is in short supply. And demands for energy development factor in here, too – with different forms of energy extraction underway across the state, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking) – the natural gas extraction practice that pumps millions of gallons of water, sand and other chemicals into the ground to bust open shale formations to access the energy source inside.

Each of these regions – and, indeed, every part of the world – are caught in the “water-energy-food-nexus”. And because the challenges are becoming increasingly interdependent, integrated solutions that involve cross sector collaboration must be adopted. The concept is complex, but at its core, the nexus focuses on natural resource scarcity and management.

Understanding the Nexus

Ultimately, “nexus thinking” means implementing integrated solutions at an ecosystem or landscape level that enhance security and sustainability in all three sectors.

The food sector part of the nexus is perhaps the simplest to comprehend. Water and energy are both needed to produce food, and agriculture consumes 80% of water resources. As populations and prosperity increase in places like India and China, people will demand more meat, which means a greater demand for corn and soybeans to feed animals. Some argue we’ll see a self-correction as the system implodes, taking with it populations and prosperity, but that’s not a solution – it’s a tragedy.

The interdependence between water and energy is more complex, and we might as well start in California.

The state uses 20% of its electricity to pump, treat and deliver water via the world’s largest public power development and water delivery system, The California State Water Project, which supplies 23 million people in California’s water scarce but populous southern region with drinking water. This involves miles of pipelines, tunnels and canals and includes carrying water 2,000 feet over the Tehachapi Mountains. It’s the largest single user of energy in the state.

Then you have the fact that water is required in basically all forms of energy, and often energy development takes place in areas where water is scarce. Staying in California, we see this in Kern County, where much of the state’s agriculture growth is taking place also. The county has always been a big energy developer containing some of the top producing oil fields in the United States. Now fracking is is in the mix, too, and it consumes roughly 164,000 gallons of water per fracking well. This is common throughout the US. According to a Ceres report, nearly half of all fracking activities happen in water-stressed regions.

But coal is even worse. In a year, a typical coal plant can withdraw up to 180 billion gallons of water and consume up to 4 billion gallons. A 2013 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) projected that water withdrawals would decrease by 80% and consumption by 40% if natural gas supplies 60% of the US’ power. This would hardly solve global water and energy challenges, however, because natural gas extraction is still water-intensive and happening in water stressed regions.

Implications of the Nexus

These events unfolding around the world carry implications for the business-as-usual practices of global companies. And similar to how India’s usage of its groundwater is unsustainable, the current practices of most companies aren’t sustainable either. The changing dynamics of water, energy and food affect business operations thoroughly. A change in price or availability, for example, in one of these commodities impacts a business from its factory floor to its corporate offices.

A recent study found that 60% of the companies surveyed indicated water would negatively affect profitability and growth within the next five years. 80% of respondents said the resource will affect where companies’ locate facilities.

The drought that took hold of Texas in 2011 directly contributed to shuttered operations – like a meat processing plant in Plainview – and job loss. It also prevented growth of the power sector despite significant demand for it in the state. There wasn’t enough water available to ensure steady production of electricity. This instability in the energy sector prevented major businesses from locating there.

The water shortages that businesses in Texas struggle with are just one challenge companies face regarding the nexus. Businesses often share water sources with other actors outside of the sector like farmers and local residents. And with multiple users often drawing from the same water source, what one does impacts the other. Fertilizers from farming activities that pollute a watershed can render it unusable for other actions. Realizing that natural resources are shared can encourage competing demands to address the matter holistically at a landscape level.

A landscape approach to the nexus also carries social implications for the local populations and perhaps beyond. Because ecologically friendly farming practices, for example, that preserve a source of clean water for all users also provides sustainable livelihoods for local populations.

This potential sustainability is another aspect of the nexus. Nexus thinking can provide stability and promote political and economic security for societies while poor resource management can generate quite the opposite. Disagreements over water management in water-scarce regions like the Middle East has led to conflicts between neighbors. In North Africa, for instance, Ethiopia is aiming for energy self-sufficiency with construction of the continent’s largest hydroelectric dam on the Nile River. But the river is essentially a source of life for Egyptians-83 million people rely on it for almost all of their water needs. Egyptian officials claim the nation will lose 20-30% of its Nile water and nearly a third of power generated from its own hydroelectric dam. Ethiopia hopes to finish the project by 2017 but in the meantime, relations between the two nations have soured. Egypt even threatens military action if construction of the dam isn’t stopped.

This situation isn’t new. Still within the Middle East, Iraq lost its once ample supply of freshwater flowing from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to Turkey when it constructed dams upstream.

The Middle East isn’t the only region trying to grow its energy capacity. Other emerging economies in Africa and Asia are doing the same. Demand for energy is expected to rise 70% by 2035, according to a UN report on world water and energy. And while bringing electricity to the 1.3 billion people who lack it is a positive, the report says, the water required in the process isn’t valued economically so its limitations are ignored. Sources are stressed and depleted. The report also predicts an increase in water resource-related conflicts unless integrated-or at least more innovative-approaches are adopted.

Nature and the Nexus

With the political, social and economic implications of the water-energy-food nexus, it’s easy to overlook the nexus’ natural component. The nexus is part of nature. Each sector requires healthy ecosystems in order to function sustainably. Ecosystem services that purify water and mitigate scarcity ease the severity of droughts and floods and make food and energy production more reliable. Incorporating nature into the nexus means integrating natural infrastructure like mangroves and coral reefs, which protect coastal regions from hurricanes, into nexus management. Other examples of natural infrastructure that would benefit water, energy and food security include wetlands and floodplains that lower flood peaks and forests that filter and store water.

A report by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature encourages the integration of nature into infrastructure investment creating a mixed portfolio of both natural and grey infrastructure that complements each other. The report notes a combined system of green and grey solutions would deliver the best results in terms of cost-effectiveness, risk and sustainable development.

To demonstrate how well natural infrastructure can work, there is the now famous example of New York City conserving the forests and wetlands of Catskill watersheds in order to maintain water quality and ensure a clean drinking water supply for NYC residents.

Likewise, ignoring natural infrastructure and relying completely on engineered systems often results in unhealthy ecosystems with a low productivity rate of ecosystem services. Dams built in Nigeria’s Komadugu Yobe Basin affected the flow of water downstream reducing the flooding season farmers relied on to water their crops. Invasive weeds flourished choking waterways and ruining pastoral and agricultural lands and fisheries. The dams were built to store water for agriculture and drinking purposes but investment in the project didn’t materialize leaving ecosystems degraded and a population vulnerable to food insecurity.

Solutions to Nexus Challenges

Integrating natural infrastructure into management of the nexus is one solution that can have a big impact on the sustainability of all three sectors.

Answers to the nexus challenge rely on efficiency and cross-sector collaboration at a landscape-level. Solutions using a framework that encompasses these elements are being considered and implemented throughout the world.

In terms of efficiency, there have been solid attempts in all three sectors to increase its levels. Referring again to the UCS report on US power production, the study highlights the importance of transitioning development toward more efficient water-smart techniques. If the US were to follow a trajectory of water-smart power development, water withdrawals would decline by 97% by 2050 and consumption would be reduced by 85%-not to mention power sector carbon emissions would drop 90% below current levels. The technology and resources are available for this transition to happen.

These water-smart techniques the UCS is supporting include renewable energy. India, struggling with its overworked power grid, is also exploring renewables as one way to relieve some of the strain and increase efficiency. The government is looking to swap groundwater pumps powered by diesel fuel and the outdated power system with solar water pumps. Farmers receive subsidies to buy the solar pumps and in exchange agree to practice water-saving drip irrigation.

Not only does the initiative in India mean less water used for energy, it could also mean less water for producing food. Efficiency in producing food is a necessary component of nexus solutions. Reducing waste and growing more food on already cultivated land are two of the steps National Geographic lays out for feeding Earth’s rising population. An entire step focuses on efficient resource use highlighting techniques like cover crops, mulching and composting, that build up nutrients in the soil and conserve water. Innovative technology grows in the food sector as well. Computerized tractors with GPS allow farmers to better target the application of fertilizers and pesticides minimizing runoff into nearby waterways.

The private sector is also heavily involved in the spread of efficient and innovative solutions. The rising interest in natural capital among businesses is helping to guide nexus thinking along as more companies become aware of their dependence and risks regarding the natural world and begin to take action. Big companies like AT&T and Hershey are making changes-upgrading outdated cooling systems and investing in conservation technology.

There is a gradual increase in companies addressing the nexus and managing their water risk. A recent report found that one in four watershed investment projects counted a business as a financial supporter. Companies are in partnerships with NGOs and governments over watershed protection and restoration activities, which address challenges on a large scale.

But further collaboration on this large scale level is needed in order to truly address and change the way society addresses its water use and energy and food production. And while change is often slow to happen, initial steps of understanding the water-energy-food nexus and coming to terms with the world’s reliance on it can happen immediately.

GreenTrees: Going The Extra Mile

 

5 June 2014 | Project developer GreenTrees has been riding the rails: partnering with Norfolk Southern – through its Trees and Trains reforestation and carbon sequestration project – to plant six million trees in the Mississippi Delta over five years, generating more than one million tonnes of carbon offsets to help offset the railroad’s emissions and restore habitat along its lines.

But GreenTrees knows these types of reforestation projects have plenty of assets that go beyond carbon and has also been hard at work collecting data to use in establishing baselines that help capture the connection between water and carbon in forestry projects and calculate the additional value that co-benefits bring. Highlighting the additional benefits of reforestation projects is critical in light of the fierce competition in the voluntary carbon offset market in 2013, as buyers had their pick of cheaper offsets from other project types. But there are buyers such as Norfolk Southern out there who are more interested in offset projects that can tell a bigger and better story than just reducing carbon.

Ahead of the June 24  release of Ecosystem Marketplace’s State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2014 report (Executive Summary available here), Chandler Van Voorhis, Managing Partner of project developer GreenTrees, told Gloria Gonzalez about the work that forest carbon project developers are and should be doing to promote other attributes of their projects and why they shouldn’t even try to compete on pricing with landfill methane and other types of carbon offsets.

Gloria Gonzalez: What did you see in the voluntary carbon markets in 2013?

Chandler Van Voorhis: I thought it showed a lot of life and was very robust during the first eight months of the year. In the fourth quarter, it got really quiet in the market and it has been quiet. I’m not necessarily sure what to attribute that to. The one thing we did speculate was that there’s been a flood of (landfill) methane credits that have come on the market. I think it’s put a lot of downward price pressure in general in the market. There are those that are trying to hit a (corporate social responsibility) CSR mandate and they don’t care what the credits look like. Then there are those that go above and beyond just buying the credit. Right now, until all this landfill methane kind of works itself out of the system, I think that’s the number one thing we can point to.

To read the rest of this Q&A, please visit the Forest Carbon Portal for free.

Gloria Gonzalez is a Senior Associate in Ecosystem Marketplace’s Carbon Program. She can be reached at [email protected].

Offset Invalidation Rules Tested In California Cap-and-Trade

 

3 June 2014 | – California’s cap-and-trade program is facing the first test of the controversial invalidation provisions featured in its carbon offsets program.

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) – the agency tasked with overseeing the state’s cap-and-trade program and its offset component – announced last week that it is reviewing compliance offsets issued for ozone depleting substances (ODS) destruction events that took place at the Clean Harbors Incineration Facility in El Dorado, Arkansas. These substances, which include foam blowing agents and refrigerants, are much more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of their global warming potential, so the ARB has adopted a process to count the greenhouse gas emissions reductions associated with destroying these materials in the United States and allow these reductions to be used for compliance in its program.

These ODS projects may have been conducted while the Arkansas facility was in violation of its operating permit issued under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The 1976 legislation gave the US Environmental Protection Agency the authority to control hazardous waste from “cradle-to-grave” – including generation, transportation, treatment, storage and disposal – and established a framework for the management of non-hazardous solid wastes.

“We are doing a lot of investigation and research trying to help ARB get through this review,” said Jeff Cohen, Senior Vice-President of Science & Policy and Co-Founder of EOS Climate, which develops ODS projects at the Clean Harbors facility.

The regulators are not raising questions about the integrity of the offsets themselves as they believe that these offsets meet ARB’s criteria of being real, quantifiable and verifiable reductions. But the cap-and-trade regulations allow the ARB to review and invalidate any offsets if the projects are determined to be in violation of any local, state or national laws during the period under which the offsets were issued.

“We’re happy the ARB is being diligent about ensuring offsets have integrity,” Cohen said. “We support that and we understand its policy in wanting to review projects that might have some connection to a violation of a federal or state law. We think this is a case that illustrates the importance of having clearly defined criteria on what it means for a facility or a project activity to be in or out of compliance. The unit that is the subject of the review has nothing to do with the incineration or destruction activities. It’s completely peripheral.”

California’s cap-and-trade regulations include so-called buyers’ liability provisions that allow the regulators to invalidate offsets found to be faulty or fraudulent and require regulated entities to surrender replacement offsets for compliance. These controversial rules are often blamed for a lack of liquidity in the California offset market.

“I don’t expect any credits to be invalidated as a result of this review, but in the meantime it is potentially two months of disrupted operations, which can damage confidence in how this program is being implemented,” Cohen said.

It is unclear exactly how many projects conducted at the Clean Harbors facility or offsets generated by these projects are affected by the review. The ARB and Clean Harbors have not yet responded to requests for comment.

None of the compliance offsets currently under review have been used for compliance in the cap-and-trade program. But until the review is complete, the ARB has blocked transfers of the offsets on its system and the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) has strongly advised parties not to engage in any transactions of offsets generated by projects that took place at the facility. Both CAR and the American Carbon Registry – organizations that develop methods (or “protocols”) to account for carbon mitigation – posted notices about the ARB review on their websites.

The review could have far-reaching implications beyond ODS projects, Cohen observed. For example, the ARB in April approved a new protocol that would generate compliance-grade carbon offsets from coal mine methane projects, which also have state and federal permitting compliance requirements.

Organizations holding the affected offsets have been notified and have 25 calendar days to provide information to the ARB, which then has 30 days from the day that all information is submitted to make a final determination on whether there was a violation and if it was meaningful enough to warrant invalidation of the offsets. If the offsets are found to be compliant, then they will once again be eligible for transfer in the ARB’s registry.

EOS, which has transacted about four million tonnes of offsets for California’s compliance market, is planning to submit information to the ARB and is hoping other affected parties will do the same in pursuit of a quick and definitive resolution, Cohen said.

A Risky Proposition

“It’s a very important development in the offset market and it very clearly demonstrates the ARB is taking its authority to invalidate offsets quite seriously and will use it when appropriate,” said Julian Richardson, CEO of Parhelion Underwriting, a specialty insurer focusing on the climate finance sector that has developed a policy to cover the invalidation risk. “In this instance, we don’t know the full details. Certainly the potential impact is that if all of these offsets are invalidated, that’s a very serious issue.”

Since the news broke, Parhelion has received inquiries about its insurance policy and is still able and willing to cover the invalidation risk for California-bound projects, except for the actual offsets that have been frozen, he said.

“We always knew what would trigger a review, but what concerns me is why this was not picked up previously by any of the verifiers of the projects,” Richardson said. “There’s clearly a gap in the verification process. It should have identified that Clean Harbors was in this process with the EPA.”

 

Biodiversity Summit On No Net Loss Will Be Streaming Live From London

The “To No Net Loss of Biodiversity and Beyond” summit, hosted by Forests Trends and the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme among others, will be streamed live. The event, which takes place at the London Zoo, starts tomorrow and runs through June 4.

2 June 2014 | Due to the overwhelming demand for seats at the To No Net Loss of Biodiversity and Beyond event at the London Zoo that couldn’t be accommodated, the conference hosts will be live streaming the sessions in the two largest rooms of the conference to the web. By clicking on these links during the conference hours you should be able to follow along:

Sessions held at the Huxley Auditorium will be live streaming here

Session held in the Prince Albert Suite will be live streaming here.

This gathering in London will be the first global conference on approaches to avoid, minimize, restore, and offset biodiversity loss.

The aim of the event is to explore how companies, governments, banks and civil society can chart a course to demonstrate ‘No Net Loss’ and preferably a ‘Net Gain’ of biodiversity in the context of development projects, plans and policies. It will bring together 300 experts and professionals from oil and gas, mining, infrastructure, hydro, wind, house-building, utility, forestry and agriculture, manufacturing and retail companies, from governments, financial institutions, NGOs, civil society and research organizations, and intergovernmental institutions.

Additional resources

This Week In Water: Breaking Down Nexus Silos

Businesses embrace the water energy nexus with innovative water-saving techniques and energy efficient measures. D.C. based non-profit, the Chamber of Commerce Foundation, highlighted companies’ success stories in a recent report and event that took place in May. In other news, H&M’s water stewardship efforts in China face new challenges and the US West continues to practice water cooperation.

This article was originally published in the Water Log newsletter. Click here to read the original.

2 June 2014 | Building sustainability in any business is difficult. It involves conserving natural resources like water and energy, which means altering the business model, spending money and testing new methods that may or may not work.

 

For the brewery MillerCoors, it involved teaming up with The Nature Conservancy to develop water efficient farming practices. The duo created a pilot project based on water conservation practices that saved 270 million gallons of water – enough to quench a family of four’s thirst for 1,850 years – in a one year period. The project was initiated soon after the brewing company realized 90 percent of its water use occurred in the company’s agriculture supply chains.


The initiative takes place in Idaho’s Silver Creek Valley, where much of the beer industry grows its barley. MillerCoors wanted to use less water in growing the crop without reducing yield. And they were able to accomplish that using techniques like precision irrigation, installing riparian plants streamside and wetland restoration and monitoring.

 

The efficient irrigation techniques also meant a reduction in energy use. Farmers were using less water which means they were using less power to pump water. The farm cut its energy use by more than half.

 

More and more companies are realizing the connection between water and energy and making various attempts to solve their version of the problem. Recent offerings from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation aim to encourage the private sector along, with a new collection of case examples of nexus solutions for business, and a guidance report outlining steps to manage interlinked water, energy, and food security risks. Read more about the USCCF’s work on nexus issues here.


In other news this month, understanding business water risk just got a little easier, with the announcement that WRI Aqueduct risk data will now be integrated into Bloomberg’s BMAP mapping platform available to Bloomberg Professional subscribers.

 

We also have two stories this month that do a nice job illustrating some of the complexities for businesses in implementing a “water stewardship” approach: A piece from UK-based Anglian Water’s CEO up at Scientific American gives us a look at how the water company’s thinking about water stewardship, which entails moving from a single-operator system to a more collective approach to governance of water resources. And an update on H&M’s water stewardship efforts in China highlights another challenge: the supply chain. Since H&M doesn’t own the factories where it’s working to implement efficiency and watershed protection measures (and in fact doesn’t have a direct relationship at all with many suppliers), they’re putting in a lot of legwork simply building trust and relationships.


It’s been a busy month in the US West. We summarize coverage of efforts to manage shortages in the Colorado River system through incentives: the “big four” urban areas relying on the basin – Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Denver, and Phoenix – are contributing funds to pay farmers, industries, and municipalities in the basin to reduce their water use, in order to keep water in Lakes Mead and Powell above crisis levels.


As fire season begins in the western states, Ashland, Oregon has secured $350,000 for wildfire fuel treatments, thinning vegetation and removing deadwood that can fuel a high-severity wildfire. That’s likely to pay off for the city: an avoided cost analysis in California’s Upper Mokelumne Watershed suggests that the benefits of fuel treatments are worth two to three times their cost. And finally, we have updates on water quality markets in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Happy reading,

— The Ecosystem Marketplace Team

For questions or comments, please contact [email protected]


EM Headlines

GENERAL

Pulling Down Nexus Silos in the Private Sector

Global demand for both water and energy is spiraling upward, with long-term implications for food security. Several private-sector initiatives have emerged to promote more coordination of energy and water issues – the focus of a recent convening and report from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation (USCCF).

“Companies are encouraged to better understand the interconnections and interdependencies of energy, water, and food, and the impacts on their business,” says Jennifer Gerholdt, the Director of Environment at USCCF. “Given how tightly linked these resources are, actions taken to alleviate pressures on one resource may result in negative consequences for the other resources.”


The CCF recently released a report, Achieving Energy and Water Security: Scalable Solutions from the Private Sector, that profiled a number of businesses securing water and energy supplies through innovative initiatives like MillerCoors’ partnership with TNC to support agricultural water conservation in Idaho, or a public-private partnership in the Dutch seaport city of Terneuzen involving The Dow Chemical Company and water company Evides in efforts to recycle municipal and industrial wastewater.

Read more at Ecosystem Marketplace.

Farms, Forests, and Climate Change: Few Opportunities, Many Challenges

Farmers and foresters already face a great deal of uncertainty in their professions. All it takes is a few weeks of intense drought, a single hailstorm, or an uncontrolled wildfire to destroy the results of their labors, and with it, their livelihoods.

 

Even in the absence of these extreme events, relatively mild variations from year to year – a too-wet spring, an earlier-than-expected frost, or a hotter-than-normal summer – can significantly reduce their yields in sectors where the margin of profit is often thin.

 

So most farmers and foresters will take little comfort in the findings of the latest National Climate Assessment, which documents recent increases in the factors that jeopardize forests and agriculture, and projects that such risks will increase in the future. The report suggests that with careful planning, substantial resources, and more than a little luck, some new opportunities could emerge. But for the most part, farmers and foresters will probably struggle just to keep up with the ever-changing conditions they will face.

Get coverage.

EPA Releases New Tool For Mapping Ecosystem Services

Payments for ecosystem services rely on information that’s both trustworthy and accessible, but they’re often dogged by data that lacks both qualities. Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled a tool that delivers on the accessibility and transparency fronts by providing an incredibly easy-to-use interface for accessing more than 300 separate data layers of geographic, demographic, and environmental data across the United States.

 

Developed in collaboration with other federal and state agencies, including the the US Geological Survey and the US Forest Service, as well as universities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), EnviroAtlas creates a map-based interface onto which data from an exhaustive matrix can be overlaid and analyzed. It can be used for everything from planning urban parks to identifying the best location for a new park to mapping the impacts of a new road.

Read about it here.

In The News

POLICY UPDATES

EU Auditors Looking for Better from CAP on Water

Water policy goals need to be better integrated into Europe’s common agricultural policy (CAP), says the European Court of Auditors (ECA). The group released a report this month that highlighted weaknesses and concerns in implementing water policy and achieving objectives. The auditors did find some positives too: the cross-compliance mechanism that links CAP payments with environmental requirements and rural development funding made a good impact and solidly supported water objectives. However, these tools are limited and fall short of meeting the new, more ambitious CAP water goals, the auditors say. They suggest modifications to these tools and using new instruments when applicable. Other recommendations include having more clear and concrete instructions for on-the-ground operations and also ensuring that the most up-to-date data regarding agricultural pressure on water is available.

Read a press release.

US Forest Service Proposes Groundwater Management Rules

Since it’s never been disproven that groundwater contributes to river flows, the US Forest Service is assuming it does. The agency has issued a proposal on groundwater management to preserve rivers and streams and ensure groundwater lasts into the future. The Forest Service is incorporating its proposed policy into the water resources management manual. Provisions include measuring and reporting all groundwater withdrawals as well as injected water and developing standards for the use and conservation of this freshwater source.

Read more at Circle of Blue.

Stormwater Management Gets Greener

Green infrastructure is becoming the norm for municipalities managing their combined sewer overflows (CSO). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) often incorporates green infrastructure into contracts over stormwater management while states and municipalities are encouraging the practice with incentives. EPA is in talks with 23 cities and towns over green infrastructure planning. And while a lack of funding remains an issue, municipalities are coming up with ways to finance new projects. In Michigan, for instance, where voters must approve millages (i.e. property taxes) and bond issues, cities are focusing on increasing voter awareness to grow their support for green infrastructure projects.

Bloomberg News has the story.

Maine’s Water Infrastructure Bill Has Natural Elements

The Maine legislature has carved out a place for natural infrastructure in its bill to improve water conditions in the state, including improvements to wetlands and water quality projects. The proposed bill is ambitious, with a long list of goals for clean water, flood and storm protection, wetland and stream restoration, job growth and other measures. As it stands, the cost of bringing Maine’s drinking water infrastructure into good repair reaches $540 million. If passed, the bill would activate a fund of $50 million to be spent on water that would also trigger a $25 million federal match. It would be a start in addressing that $540 million need – although a small one.

Learn more here.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Colorado River States Build Innovative Conservation Scheme

Water cooperation receives another boost as the big four urban water users of the Colorado River along with the Bureau of Reclamation launch the Colorado River System Conservation Program. The initiative’s goal is to prevent Colorado River water shortages by paying farmers, industries and municipalities to reduce their water use. These voluntary actions in theory can keep the river’s main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Powell, high enough to avoid a shortage.


It’s funded through the Bureau of Reclamation and regional water associations containing the four largest cities- Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Denver and Phoenix – that depend on the Colorado for their water supply. Each will contribute $2 million; Reclamation’s $3 million brings the total to $11 million. That isn’t much, but the plan is to increase funding and invest in more water-saving projects as the initiative evolves. For right now, focus is on laying groundwork for cooperation on a problem together that affects them all.

Read more at National Geographic News Watch.

Bloomberg Incorporates WRI Aqueduct Risk Data Into Mapping Platform

Most companies believe water risk challenges will worsen in the next five years. So it’s good news that the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Overall Water Risk Map is now available on Bloomberg’s interactive mapping platform BMAP, which is available to Bloomberg Professional subscribers. More businesses will have access to data on world water supplies and can make decisions accordingly. Aqueduct’s water risk map is incorporated into BMAP and calculates water risk based on a set of indicators covering quality and quantity of water in a given area and potential regulatory and reputational risks that could be associated with a region’s water.

Environmental Leader has coverage.

A Private Sector Guide to the Nexus

A new report from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation (USCCF) offers a business-friendly introduction to the water-energy-food nexus, and summarizes USCCF research on best available guidance for building business resilience to interlinked water, energy, and food security risks. The Energy-Water-Food Nexus: Insights for the Business Community outlines steps companies can take to address nexus issues and some broader recommendations as well: namely, strengthening engagement between nexus experts and the business community, supporting development of a full integrated model for business of energy-water-food production (none currently exists), and improving knowledge about the role of ecosystem services in the nexus.

Get a copy of the report here.

In the Sierra Nevada, Benefits of Wildfire Fuel Treatments 2-3X Their Cost

Undertaking wildfire fuels removal to reduce wildfire risk and their attendant severe costs for water utilities

has become a popular model in the US West. But available funding pales in comparison to the number of acres still needing treatment, and it can be tough to make the economic case for dealing with a high severity wildfire that hasn’t happened yet.


A new report from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Forest Service comprehensively weighs the costs and benefits of a landscape-scale fuel treatments effort. The study examines the upper Mokelumne River watershed in the central Sierra Nevada, an important water source for the San Francisco Bay Area. Among the key findings: first of all, fuel treatments work, and their benefits are estimated at two to three times their costs. In the Moke, costs to public land managers are estimated at US $68 million, compared to $126-224 million in benefits accruing to the state, federal government, residential property owners, and utilities. Avoided costs associated with sedimentation are put at $1 million.


Following the study’s release, Carpe Diem West offers an interview with Kim Carr of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and Dale Lyons, who had carried out earlier efforts at avoided cost analysis for the City of Sante Fe, discussing the research process and how other organizations might undertake avoided cost analyses of their own.

Read a copy of the Mokelumne avoided cost analysis report.
Read Carpe Diem West’s interview with Carr and Lyons.

Spring Trading in the PNW

The Willamette Partnership’s latest newsletter offers market updates for the Pacific Northwest’s Klamath, Rogue, and Willamette basin trading programs, all of which use the Partnership’s Ecosystem Credit Accounting System. Five projects have recently been verified in the Rogue basin marketplace, representing 15.5 acres and two miles of streambank restoration, which will keep the equivalent of 14,000 bathtubs of boiling water out of the river system this year.


Meanwhile in the Willamette Valley, the Calapooia project is expected to be verified this month, with another on track for early 2015. New projects are also in the works in the Klamath basin, where the Klamath Tracking and Accounting Program is currently enrolling pilots. And the Partnership is helping to support the first point-nonpoint trading program in California, in the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed in Sonoma County. The newsletter also provides an update on the recently formed National Network on Water Quality Trading, which the Partnership is leading along with the World Resources Institute.

Read the newsletter here.

Creating a Resilient Karachi

After Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on New York City, the state’s governor tasked a special commission to draw up a set of recommendations on how the city might increase its resilience to a changing climate that includes more extreme weather. The framework the commission created isn’t just about rebuilding infrastructure, but about rebuilding it in better and smarter ways. It focuses on integrating green and natural infrastructure into city planning.


Could a framework like this apply to Karachi – Pakistan’s most populous city and also a place exposed to urban floods, drought and extreme heat? An urban planner living in the city sees potential. The process for creating a framework for Karachi would have to include certain steps, however. For starters, the city’s infrastructure would have to be assessed and a wide group of stakeholders would need to be involved. A rising demand in safeguarding against climate change risks brought on by educating city residents of the hazards would also have to happen.

Learn more from the Express-Tribune.

Anglian Water Talks About Its Water Stewardship Strategy

A new post at Scientific American from Anglian Water CEO Peter Simpson takes a look at the challenges that water companies face in a changing climate. In some places Anglian Water must contend with too little available water, and in others too much, as flooding risks will increase in the coming decades. These trends amplify existing friction between the water company and agricultural and environmental uses.


In response, Anglian Water has partnered with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership to develop water stewardship strategies working with other water users to better manage resources. “There are financial, environmental and social opportunities from a collective approach” that shifts from a water company-owned and operated system to a new model, “based on social collectives coming together to invest at the catchment scale,” Simpson says. What that looks like in practice remains to be seen: there are no models for Anglian Water to learn from. The work with CISL maps out new models for integrated management, potential financing streams, and cost-benefit projections.

Read the piece at Scientific American.

Ashland Secures $350K for Wildfire Fuels Thinning

The City of Ashland, Oregon recently received matching funds from the National Forest Foundation for wildfire fuels thinning in the city’s watershed. The agreement, which will treat around 350 acres at a cost of US $350,000, builds on earlier work under the Ashland Forest Resiliency project which has worked to reduce wildfire risks since 2010. Funding for that project has run out; the city’s decision to put forward its own funding in order to attract additional support seems to have paid off for now. But with thousands of acres needing treatment, “It’s an ongoing saga,” says Ashland mayor John Stromberg.

The Ashland Daily Tidings has coverage.

Water Stewardship and the Supply Chain: H&M’s Experience So Far

China Water Risk has an update on H&M’s partnership with WWF to implement water stewardship approaches in basins in China, where fabric mills supplying the company operate. A year in, the initiative offers some insights into successes so far, and some of the challenges of water stewardship when it comes to a global supply chain. To date, the partnership has trained employees and put teams in place to implement a Yangtze Basin engagement plan that increases efficiency and limits water quality impacts from operations. It also aims to set water targets and improve water management at all 500 supplier factories by 2015. H&M’s business structure means cooperative action is essential: the company owns no factories and doesn’t even have a direct relationship with the fabric mills that supply its suppliers. That means H&M and WWF have some heavy lifting to do as far as building partnerships. According to the company, “We strongly believe that this is the most sustainable approach to water management, but it means that we first must build trust and a shared vision with our partners.”

Read more at China Water Risk.

EVENTS

Webinar: U.S. Corporate Water Risks: Closing the Gap between Concern and Action

A 2014 survey of major U.S. corporations by the Pacific Institute and VOX Global found that 60% of companies believe water challenges will negatively affect business growth and profitability within five years. More than 80% said it will affect their decision on where to locate facilities. This is a stark increase from five years ago, when fewer than 20% of responding companies were concerned about water risks. During this one-hour webinar, in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center, Pacific Institute, VOX Global, and WASH Advocates, attendees will discuss these findings and explore the gap between concern and action. Attendees will hear private sector case studies, as well as steps companies can take to identify water risks and opportunities, and how to make the business case for action. 17 June 2014. 3:00 EDT. Online.

Register here.

World Water Week 2014: Energy and Water

World Water Week is hosted and organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and takes place in Stockholm. The World Water Week has been the annual focal point for the globe’s water issues since 1991. Every year, SIWI provides a platform for over 200 collaborating organisations to convene events at the World Water Week. In addition, individuals from around the globe present their findings at the scientific workshops. Early Bird discount rate is available till 30 June. 31 August – 5 September 2014. Stockholm, Sweden.

Learn more here.

Ecosystem Services Partnership Conference 2014

The emphasis of this Seventh international ESP conference will be on the use of the ecosystem services concept at the local level, focusing on Latin America with a special emphasis on Costa Rica. Scientists representing several EU-funded projects will present their results on Community Based Ecosystem Management. Don’t miss your chance to interact and exchange ideas with the rapidly growing network of ESP members, practitioners, educators, policy-makers, researchers, and many others from all continents. Be part of special sessions and working-groups producing outcomes ranging from journal articles, white papers, book chapters, grant proposals, database structures, websites, and much more. The deadline for the submission of abstracts for posters is June 15th and July 6th. 8-12 September 2014. San Jose, Costa Rica.

Learn more here.

One Water Leadership (OWL) Summit

Early Bird Registration for this year’s One Water Leadership (OWL) Summit is open with reduced rates! Join the 5th annual event September 15 – 17, in Kansas City. Invited keynotes include: President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Mayor of Sacramento Kevin Johnson and U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. Spotlight Communities will drive the national conversation on water as the centerpiece for urban sustainability, developing green infrastructure and resource recovery. 15-17 September 2014. Kansas City MO, USA.

Learn more here.

16th Annual BIOECON Conference

The BIOECON Partners are pleased to announce the Sixteenth Annual International BIOECON conference on the theme of “Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainability”. The conference will be of interest to both researchers and policy makers working on issues broadly in the area of biodiversity, ecosystem services, sustainable development and natural capital, in both developed and developing countries. The conference takes a broad interest in the area of resource management, development and conservation, including but not limited to: the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services in economic development, plant genetic resources and food security issues, deforestation and development, fisheries and institutional adaptation, development and conservation, wildlife conservation, and international trade and regulation. The conference will have sessions on economic development, growth and biodiversity conservation, as well as on institutions and institutional change pertaining to the management of living resources. 21-23 September 2014. Cambridge, UK.

Learn more here.

World Green Infrastructure Congress

The Congress will present the latest technological developments, green industry awards, iconic best practice projects, research data, professional training workshops, Living Art competition and new areas of applications in the field of green infrastructure. It will serve as a surface + space where international urban greenery thought leaders from various disciplines may come together with architects, landscape architects, landscaper contractors, environmentalists, horticulturists, nursery growers and policymakers and stakeholders to examine the present and future trends of this growing sector. 7-10 October 2014. Sydney, Australia.

Learn more here.

ACES 2014 Conference: Linking Science, Practice, and Decision Making

ACES: A Community on Ecosystem Services represents a dynamic and growing assembly of professionals, researchers, and policy makers involved with ecosystem services. The ACES 2014 Conference brings together this community in partnership with Ecosystem Markets and the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP), providing an open forum to share experiences, methods, and tools, for assessing and incorporating ecosystem services into public and private decisions. The focus of the conference is to link science, practice, and sustainable decision making by bringing together the ecosystem services community from around the United States and the globe. ACES 2014 will bring together leaders in government, NGOs, academia, Native American communities, and the private sector to advance the use of ecosystem services science and practice in conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions. We hope you will make plans to join more than 500 ecosystem service stakeholders in this collaborative discussion to advance use of an ecosystem services framework for natural resource management and policy. 8-11 December 2014. Washington DC, USA.

Learn more here.

JOBS

 

Programme Coordinator

WWF – South Africa

WWF-SA invites applications for the position of Programme Coordinator to support the work of the Fynbos Succulent Land Programme (FSK). The FSK Programmes has four predominant focal areas of work:

 

  • Supporting & mobilising civil society participation in conservation (via The Table Mountain Fund, and the WWF-Nedbank Green Trust);
  • Growing our Protected Area Estate through land purchase and other innovative means (driven by the Land Programme);
  • Demonstrating that ecosystem management and restoration efforts in priority habitats can be better achieved and financed over the long-term through developing potential carbon projects that also promise high water and/or biodiversity returns, and
  • Testing new ideas and concepts around building socio-ecological resilience in key landscapes within the Fynbos (the Resilient Landscapes Programme).

 

This position will support the entire FSK Programme, but particularly the work of the Land Programme, the Resilient Landscapes Programme, and aspects of the FSK civil society engagement work undertaken via the Green Trust portfolio of projects.

Learn more here.

CONTRIBUTING TO ECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE

Ecosystem Marketplace is a project of Forest Trends a tax-exempt corporation under Section 501(c)(3).The non-profit evaluator Charity Navigator has given Forest Trends its highest rating (4 out of 4 stars) recognizing excellence in our financial management and organizational efficiency.

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