Market Insights Brief: Carbon Deal Dynamics, June 2026
How long does it take to sell a carbon credit? What are the biggest sources of friction in the process? What are the opportunities to streamline transactions for all parties? Ecosystem Marketplace and Carbon Capital Lab surveyed 48 carbon project developers and intermediaries in early 2026 about sales timelines and when and why deals fall […]
Gaining Ground: State of Private Investment in Nature 2026
This new report by Ecosystem Marketplace and The Nature Conservancy shows that private investment in nature has grown substantially over the past decade, reflecting a market that is far more sophisticated, transparent, and standardized than when the last edition was published in 2016. As interest in nature investing continues to grow, there remains a lack […]
State of Private Investment in Nature 2026 Case Study: Aurora Sustainable Lands
Carbon-First Forestry: Building a New Investment Model for US Timberlands
For most of the past four decades, the US timberland investment market operated on a single thesis: acquire divested paper company lands, manage for timber, and return capital at the end of a fund cycle. Returns have shifted downward from mid-teens in the early years of the market to 4-6% as the space grew crowded and timber […]
State of Private Investment in Nature 2026 Case Study: Kwaxala
Finance on Nature’s Terms: A New Investment Architecture for Indigenous-Stewarded Forests
Most of the world’s most ecologically valuable forests are not held in private hands. In British Columbia, 94% of land is Crown land with underlying Indigenous rights to title over those lands, with the best forest held under Tree Farm Licenses issued to logging companies. These licenses are not only rights to extract timber; they […]
Market Insights Brief: VCM Demand Outlook, January 2026
What does demand look like for the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in 2026? To get an early read, Ecosystem Marketplace surveyed a sample of carbon project developers in December 2025 about how buyer behavior, pricing trends, and procurement activity compare to where the market was six months ago. Here are some highlights of what suppliers […]
2025 State of the Voluntary Carbon Market (SOVCM)
Meeting the Moment: Renewing Trust in Carbon Finance
Over the 20-year history of Ecosystem Marketplace (EM), we have seen carbon markets grow from a nascent idea into a mechanism with the potential to seriously mitigate global warming. Our annual State of the Voluntary Carbon Market (SOVCM) provides a comprehensive overview of this global supply and demand of voluntary carbon credits. In this year’s […]
Nature’s investment frontier
Practical paths forward for biodiversity markets and finance
By Ricardo Bayon, Charles Bedford, Genevieve Bennett, Adam Davis, Ben Guillon, Katherine Hamilton, Michael Jenkins, Dr. Timothy Male, Martine Maron, Julia McCarthy, Yuejia Peng, Fabien Quétier, Mariana Sarmiento, Ryan Sarsfield, David Tepper, and Amrei von HaseBiodiversity-based investment themes are suddenly in the spotlight, after years of feeling like a bit of an understudy to the carbon market. Given a ballooning finance gap for nature, and the obvious materiality of nature risk to business, there is renewed interest in economic instruments that can drive private investment toward interventions to avert biodiversity […]
State of the Blue Carbon Market
An Ocean of Potential
By Tundi AgardyMany countries have already catalyzed major action toward carbon emissions reductions through reducing deforestation, forest degradation, conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+). The opportunities for ocean and coastal ecosystems to complement these mitigation efforts are many and are aided by the extensive experience gained through forest carbon initiatives. However, […]
2024 State of the Voluntary Carbon Market (SOVCM)
Ecosystem Marketplace (EM) publishes our annual State of the Voluntary Carbon Market (SOVCM) report–a series now approaching the two-decade mark–to provide a comprehensive overview of the global supply and demand of voluntary carbon credits. We interview and collect annual disclosures from market participants representing the majority of project developers and credit resellers, and combine this […]
2023 State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Report
By Ecosystem Marketplace, a Forest Trends initiativeIn the lead-up to COP28, Ecosystem Marketplace published its flagship 2023 State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets report covering the latest prices, trends, and insights related to international voluntary carbon markets. The report was launched on November 28 at 10:00 am ET / 1500 GMT+1 during Ecosystem Marketplace’s Insights Briefing webinar – watch the recording […]