SPECIES BANKING:

Markets depend on transparent and reliable information to function. What is true for investors on Wall Street is equally true for environmental market players trading in carbon, water quality, and biodiversity.

Unfortunately, obtaining information for these markets can sometimes be exceedingly difficult. In many ways they resemble the Wall Street of the 1800s – with information closely guarded by those who profit from it – rather than the stock markets of today. But markets grow and evolve, and they do so, in part, because of the transformative power of reliable and transparent information. Providing such information is the role of Ecosystem Marketplace.

Definitions

Biodiversity offset - Biodiversity offsets are measurable conservation outcomes resulting from actions designed to compensate for significant residual adverse biodiversity impacts arising from project development after appropriate prevention and mitigation measures have been taken. The goal of biodiversity offsets is to achieve no net loss and preferably a net gain of biodiversity on the ground with respect to species composition, habitat structure and ecosystem function and people’s use and cultural values associated with biodiversity.

Compensation - in general, a recompense for some loss or service, and is something which constitutes an equivalent to make good the lack or variation of something else. It can involve something (such as money) given or received as payment or reparation (as for a service or loss or injury). Specifically, in terms of biodiversity, compensation involves measures to restore, create, enhance, or avoid loss or degradation of a community type, in order to compensate for residual impacts on it and / or its associated species. We use the term compensation fund to indicate a third-party mechanism that collects and administers fees from developers to offset their impacts to biodiversity. The money may go directly towards compensating biodiversity loss, or to more indirect biodiversity-related projects (i.e. funding protected area management, research).

Banking - indicates a system that allows restoration, establishment, enhancement and/or preservation of resources (e.g., wetlands, species, native vegetation) for the purpose of providing compensatory mitigation for impacts to biodiversity. In general, a banking system allows a bank owner to sell compensatory mitigation credits to developers whose obligation to provide compensatory mitigation is then transferred to the mitigation bank sponsor.

http://global.speciesbanking.com/pages/about_us

Incorporating Nature into Decision-Making in Madagascar

Posted by Rosimeiry Portela | 06.18.2012

Today at the Rio+20 conference, several CI staff are participating in a side event called “Natural capital accounting: Why do we need it and how can we implement it?” Co-organized by the World Bank, the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and CI, this event examines how researchers can evaluate “natural capital” — the benefits and services provided to people by biodiversity and ecosystems — and incorporate it into economic decision-making. Here on the blog, CI’s Rosimeiry Portela describes some of her field research.

…. the Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES), a World Bank-led partnership that aims to integrate natural capital into national accounting systems, with the ultimate goal of encouraging better and more efficient decision-making and planning. …

….This week at Rio+20, as global leaders recognize the need to move beyond GDP and express their commitment to green economies, the relevance and importance of natural capital accounting will be increasingly evident.

http://blog.conservation.org/2012/06/incorporating-nature-into-decision-making-in-madagascar/

Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services http://www.ariesonline.org/

The new landmark project “ForCES – Forest Certification for Ecosystem Services” looks at what changes to the FSC^® system are needed over a four year period, 2011-2015, for FSC to become a global leader in the certification of ecosystem services.

FSC and partner organizations research, analyze, and field test innovative ways how to evaluate and reward the provision of critical ecosystem services, such as biodiversity conservation, watershed protection and carbon. http://www.fsc.org/forces-pilot.129.htm

http://www.scoop.it/t/nature-economics/p/1791797815/aries-artificial-intelligence-for-ecosystem-services

Population and consumption are at the heart of sustainable development and efforts to move the world towards the sustainable use of its natural resources. Both are politically and ethically sensitive, but it is essential that this does not lead to them being neglected by policy makers. The world needs to adopt a rational and evidence-based approach to addressing the issues raised by population growth and unsustainable consumption patterns, one that respects human rights and the legitimate aspirations of people and countries with low-income to improve their living standards and levels of well-being. http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/news/201205-news-GeoengineeingGrant

March-April 2012, Vol. 37, No. 2

The financialization of nature

The 2008 food and energy price bubbles were only the latest in a series of crises for major investors who had become accustomed to the high returns of the 1980s and 1990s. In a desperate quest to find and create new markets with high profit potential, investors, with hundreds of trillions of dollars on hand, are quickly changing the "ownership" of nature and how land is used around the world. In countries where Maryknoll works, the result has been higher and more volatile food and energy prices, increasing conflicts over land, displacement of families and a notable shift away from local decision-making around land use. This "financialization" of nature is an overwhelming reality that will frame many struggles in coming years.

Antonio Tricarico, coordinator of the Italian organization Campaign for World Bank Reform, explains the concept well: "We live in a time of finance capitalism, when trading money…is more profitable [than] trading goods and services… That is in short what people refer to often as 'financialization' of the economy… as more and more aspects of everyday life – from home ownership to pensions and schooling – are mediated through financial markets rather than just markets."

For more than three decades, international financial institutions have pressured governments to privatize the production and distribution of natural resources (mining, water delivery systems, energy utilities, etc.), but a more recent phenomenon is the growing encroachment of the financial sector in the ownership of the natural resources themselves.

…While commodity markets have become the latest playground for large pools of money, Wall Street, with the aid of some governments, scientists and NGOs, is working to develop new markets to take advantage of impending shortages in a variety of natural resources.

Land-grabbing

Large institutional investors are increasingly buying farm land around the world as another good way "to balance their portfolio." They know that in the long term, land prices will certainly go up due to increasing population, and have begun to buy large tracts of land, especially in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. Over 80 million hectares (200 million acres) of land – twice the size of France – has been leased or sold in developing countries since 2001 at extremely low prices, mostly to international investors.

Pastoralists and smallholder farmers who have been in areas for many generations are often exiled from their lands that now "belong" to distant pension funds and university endowments who prefer to plant massive palm oil plantations or other crops for export. Many of the projects claim to aid displaced families but this often does not play out on the ground.

Mining

Hedge funds increasingly fund mining projects and coal companies. This has made campaigns against specific mines and mining companies more challenging as information on hedge funds is limited and their actions are difficult to influence. Big banks and financial institutions are buying up large quantities of storage units for industrial metals like aluminum and copper as well as gas and oil storage facilities. For example, Morgan Stanley chartered more oil tankers than Chevron in 2009, and Goldman Sachs is the largest owner of aluminum storage houses in the world.

Water

….. Many national governments and international bodies see the pricing and selling of water on international markets as absolutely necessary. Different international forums are trying to agree on ways to place a monetary value on water in order to facilitate trade. Once water has a price it will be difficult, if not impossible, to avoid its eventual financialization.

"Carbon" and other virtual commodities

While growing speculation in physical commodities has had negative results, those markets are likely to be much more stable than newly-forming markets for carbon and other "virtual" commodity markets. In the case of carbon, there is no actual commodity to be bought and sold. As Tricarico puts it, "the commodity itself is a derivative – a bet on avoiding projected carbon emissions against a disputable baseline." There are so many ways for the carbon market to be gamed that it is hard to imagine it not being highly vulnerable to price bubbles and crashes. As early experiences with the REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) market have shown, projects that displace thousands of families and plant massive "green deserts" of palm oil trees are considered to be positive and receive carbon credits to be sold on the market.

Unfortunately, carbon markets are only the first of many environment-centered markets that Wall Street would like to create. It is moving quickly to build markets to trade biodiversity and establish international frameworks to trade species, habitats and ecosystems.

….. National governments, international financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank, as well as international forums like the G20, European Union and UN are also important places to act to stop the laws that turn nature into commodities and establish markets to trade them. For example, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study is a major initiative by the European Commission to price biodiversity and aid the creation of biodiversity markets.

Ample opportunities for North-South alliances and campaigns exist around these issues; in fact, it will be important to include the perspectives from both hemispheres in all efforts to make sure that contradictory campaigns are not created. In the end, the biggest struggles will be on the ground as communities fight to preserve their livelihoods.

http://www.maryknollogc.org/newsnotes/37.2/Financialization_of_nature.html

June 18, 2012

Rio+20: Coke, Unilever, Other Giants Lead Natural Capital Initiative; Plus a Summit Business News Roundup

The Coca-Cola Company, Dow Chemical and Duke Energy are among 24 major companies that have agreed to develop a methodology to assign value to the world’s forests, freshwater and marine systems. The Corporate Eco Forum and The Nature Conservancy are leading the Valuing Natural Capital initiative, announced at the United Nations’ Rio+20 Earth Summit.

Committed firms also include Alcoa, CH2M Hill, Clorox, Darden, Dell, Disney, Ecolab, EKO Asset Management Partners, Enterprise, FEMSA, GM, Hanes, Kimberly-Clark, Lockheed-Martin, Marriott, Nike, Patagonia, TD Bank, Unilever, Weyerhaeuser and Xerox.

In the New Business Imperative: Valuing Natural Capital report, the organizations lay out a four-step framework for the methodology, which includes reducing risks caused by scarcities of natural resources; finding ways to cut costs while reducing impacts to ecosystems; enhancing brand and reputation and winning trust from customers who value sustainability leadership; and fueling revenue growth from products and services that don’t harm ecosystems.

The declaration was designed to complement other Rio+20 initiatives working to embed natural capital considerations across business, finance and national accounting systems. “Natural capital” is a term for the goods and services ecosystems provide, such as fresh water and food.

Leaders of 37 banks, investment funds and insurance companies agreed at the summit to take better stock of the unsustainable stress put on ecosystems by the economic activity they manage, and work towards integrating natural capital into their products and services.

The Natural Capital Declaration, created by the UN Environment Program Finance Initiative, Global Canopy Program and Center for Sustainable Studies of the Business Administration School of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, calls for financial institutions to incorporate natural capital considerations into the risk assessment procedures they undergo before making a loan, equity, bond or insurance products-related decision.

The declaration also calls for policymakers at Rio+ to begin crafting legislation and regulations that can encourage the development of financial products and services that take account of and sustain the Earth’s natural capital.

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/06/18/rio20-coke-unilever-other-giants-lead-natural-capital-initiative-plus-a-summit-business-news-roundup/

Leverage emerging “natural capital” markets such as water-quality trading, wetland banking and threatened species banking, and natural carbon sequestration.

http://www.corporateecoforum.com/valuingnaturalcapital/offline/download.pdf

FRAMEWORK for ACTION

2. PUT A PRICE ON NATURE’S VALUE

Companies can position themselves for long-term success by working today to put a monetary value on what nature does for their businesses — and by calculating the costs of damage to healthy ecosystems. Doing so can improve business decision making by exposing significant costs and benefits that could seriously impact the bottom line but which traditional financial analyses usually miss. The first pilot project underpinning Dow Chemical’s innovative collaboration with The Nature Conservancy to improve the science and practice of valuing ecosystem services is already revealing these kinds of opportunities related to Dow’s Freeport, Texas site.

In addition, the valuation of “natural capital” makes financial disclosure more robust and gives companies the option of pursuing integrated reporting.

It’s becoming easier to obtain the data necessary for valuation. Companies are beginning to automate systems to monitor ecosystem impacts and natural resource usage and are using database dashboards that receive feeds from remote field sensors to enable real-time observation and comparison. This, in turn, facilitates reliable tracking of supply chains and certification chains.