Defenders' Experts
Media Contacts
Please direct media inquiries to:
Marketplace for Nature Project Partners
Partner organizations within the Marketplace will
work together:
- to develop rigorous standards to ensure the credibility and transparency of the transactions;
- to encourage more consistent and coordinated approaches to the measurement and marketing of ecosystem services; and
- to promote policies that support an efficient system with reasonable transaction costs.
Marketplace for Nature Partners: a partial list
The Willamette Partnership is a non-profit organization in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, working to develop an ecologically effective multi-credit marketplace. The Partnership is managing a project called “Counting on the Environment,” that will produce consistent methodology for calculating the value of wetlands, water quality, salmon and prairie habitat, and obtain regulatory approval for the process of generating and selling these types of credits.
The Northwest Environmental Business Council is a trade association for environmental professionals that provides advice on market development and information to its members on the progress of the marketplace. The Council is contributing a portion of registration fees from an ecosystem markets conference to a restoration project in the Willamette Basin.
Parametrix is a private consulting firm working to develop metrics for a variety of ecosystem services, under contract with the Willamette Partnership and the Oregon Institute for Natural Resources. When completed, the tools developed by Parametrix and partners will allow a user to determine improvements or decline of individual ecosystem services associated with restoration or development respectively along with an overall ecological score.
TZ1 Ecosystem Markets Registry is the only multi-credit environmental
registry in the world, helping to facilitate transparent robust ecosystem
markets and engaging meaningfully in helping to develop new market initiatives.
TZ1 is involved in a number of exciting multi credit ecosystem market regional
programs across the US, each valuing financial markets connectivity, easy
account access for multiple credit types, and sub-accounting infrastructure. TZ1
is a company that is passionate about environmental markets.
Mission Markets Inc. is an electronic marketplace for the environmental and social capital markets that provides participants access to mission aligned capital, pre-screened investment opportunities, liquidity, transparency and relevant information.
Perkins Coie LLP, a national law firm, provides guidance on potential legal
and regulatory issues relevant to Marketplace projects to its client The
Willamette Partnership; The Willamette Partnership in turn regularly
shares that guidance with the other Marketplace Partners. Perkins Coie also
hosts meetings of the Marketplace for Nature partners in its Portland
office.
U.S.D.A. Forest Services Pacific Northwest Research Station provides technical support to the marketplace and facilitates communication and cooperation with other federal agencies.
Biophilia Foundation in Maryland is providing advice to the marketplace relative to financing transactions. The Foundation has also offered Mudford Farm as a pilot site, and has contributed financial support to develop a Marketplace for Nature portal on the Conservation Registry.
The Pinchot Institute has launched a project in Maryland called the Bay Bank. The Bay Bank is building a multi-credit marketplace with an initial focus on water quality and habitat in the Chesapeake Bay region. Pinchot developed a tool called Land Server to help landowners determine what ecosystem services they have to sell and what incentives might be available to them.
Oregon’s Department of Forestry provides feedback and guidance to the marketplace, especially with respect to landowner participation.
Clean Water Services, a special district in Oregon’s Washington County, is a leader in ecosystem service market development. The agency manages a water quality trading program that serves as a model for local governments across the country. The director and staff have helped develop the Marketplace for Nature concept.
Oregon Chapter of The Nature Conservancy has been actively involved in developing the methodology for quantifying ecosystem services, and may sell credits from its restored properties.
The Oregon Institute for Natural Resources is a multi-university institute that provides policy-relevant information regarding natural resource management issues. The Institute has hosted policy dialogues concerning ecosystem markets, and is engaged in several research projects that will improve market performance, including a study of supply-side financial tools for potential sellers (landowners). The Institute is also engaged in a national dialogue concerning the measurement of ecosystem service values; is collaborating on designing an ecosystem services research agenda for Oregon State University and other partners; and is involved in developing a graduate policy seminar on ecosystem services and family forestry.
The Oregon Zoo, dedicated to creating a better future for wildlife, will be the first customer at the Marketplace for Nature. The Zoo is hosting the national zoo and aquarium conference in September, 2009. Attendees will be invited to make a small investment in a local restoration project in a high priority area of the Willamette Basin to help offset the ecological impact of attending the conference.
Read more:
The Marketplace for Nature, initiated by Defenders of Wildlife and managed by a consortium of public and private organizations to demonstrate how a voluntary multi-credit ecosystem marketplace will work.
Marketplace for Nature goals include ecological effectiveness, addressing multiple values, rewards for strategic investment and others.
Developing a standard approach to measuring habitat quantity and quality within ecosystem service markets that can be accepted and applied across the U.S. Read more.
How does the Marketplace for Nature select a project site?
Bundling and stacking ecosystem service credits: what does it mean and how does it help landowners?
