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Marketplace for Nature
What is the Marketplace for Nature?
The Marketplace for Nature is a program initiated by Defenders of Wildlife in collaboration with a consortium of public and private organizations to support the development of ecologically effective markets for ecosystem services. The Marketplace will highlight projects that exemplify the highest quality conservation and restoration activities. Financing will be provided by investors motivated by environmental regulations and/or a genuine desire to address critical ecological needs. Featured projects will market multiple ecosystem services including biodiversity, endangered species, fish and wildlife habitat, carbon, water quality and quantity, wetlands and other ecological values. A primary goal of the Marketplace is to facilitate more strategic investments in existing mitigation programs, and to attract major new public and private funding for conservation projects. View the goals for the Marketplace for Nature.
Marketplace for Nature's Mission
To establish integrated, ecologically effective and easily accessible markets for ecosystem services, and to facilitate voluntary investment in high quality projects that address regional biodiversity goals at an appropriate scale.
How will the Marketplace for Nature work?
The project will identify individuals and organizations promoting high quality projects with the potential to provide substantial ecosystem services. Credible yet practical methodologies will be used to account for those values. Credits will be marketed to individuals, organizations, institutions and government agencies who have regulatory obligations, to voluntarily offset or mitigate their ecological footprints, to businesses that want to save time and money by investing in credits in anticipation of regulatory requirements, and to voluntary buyers interested in investing in ecologically significant projects with tangible benefits. Read about the habitat-biodiversity metric.
The project will create a web-based system to help buyers and sellers to find each other and conduct transactions. A Marketplace for Nature portal in the Conservation Registry will provide complete project profiles to help investors choose where to invest. The Marketplace will offer credits associated with regulatory programs, like wetland banking, and credits associated with unregulated resources, like fish, wildlife and habitats known to be at risk but without statutory protection. Funding for this portal is provided by the Biophilia Foundation.
A major focus of the Marketplace for Nature is to develop a habitat/biodiversity metric that can be applied anywhere in North America and beyond, since consistent protocols for quantifying habitat values do not exist at present. Initial funding for this project is provided by the Bullitt Foundation. Read about the habitat-biodiversity metric.
Pilot Projects
Initial focus will be on the identification, conservation and restoration of a limited number of sites served by the Willamette Partnership in Oregon and Bay Bank in Maryland. A variety of ecosystem services produced by these sites will be offered for sale to public and private buyers, with or without regulatory responsibilities. These projects will help demonstrate how a multi-credit marketplace will work and provide opportunities to test methodologies under development to quantify and guarantee the integrity of ecosystem services. The pilot projects will also draw attention to the potential for ecosystem service markets to increase the amount of private and public capital for conservation purposes while potentially expediting development projects and lowering the cost of regulatory compliance. Read about site selection.
The long term vision for the program is to expand the number of sites and geographic scope of the Marketplace for Nature into new areas, to participate actively in the development of national standards for ecosystem services, and to support the development of trading platforms and registries that support a robust market with tangible ecological benefits at a landscape scale.
Who are the buyers?
Marketplace for Nature buyers may include companies, individuals, non-profit organizations, foundations and government organizations. In order to provide potential buyers with the authenticity of banking, the Marketplace will likely use an existing registry already practiced in ecosystem service credit transactions. For more information, go to TZ1 Ecosystem Markets Registry.
Initial trades will require direct handling by Marketplace or partner organization staff, and there may be opportunities to tap existing retailers in voluntary ecosystem service markets that might be interested in a partnership.
Policies Affecting Ecosystem Service Markets
Many policies at the state and federal level affect the demand for ecosystem services, and the level of complexity required for buyers and sellers to find each other and conduct transactions. The State of Oregon recently adopted a new law aimed at encouraging and enabling state agencies to work together to support, not inhibit the development of effective markets.
Read more:
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?
Partners working together to develop rigorous standards for the Marketplace for Nature. See who's involved.
