New Study on the Value of Coastal Wetlands

From a recent Greenwire Press Release:

U.S. coastal wetlands provide more than $23 billion in annual storm protection services to cities and regions most vulnerable to hurricane and tropical storm surges, according to a study released today.The University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics prepared the study, which finds that “coastal wetlands provide ‘horizontal levees’ [...]

Payments for Ecosystem Services: Market Profiles

Forest Trends released this informative report in May 2008.
http://ecosystemmarketplace.com/documents/acrobat/PES_Matrix_Profiles_PROFOR.pdf

Article on Chesapeake Bay Market Initiatives

The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay “Bay Journal” published the following general article on market efforts in the Chesapeake Bay. It’s an interesting overview, although I could do without also the ‘fashion’ comments…what’s hot and what’s not.
http://www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=3376

Update on Pennsylvania Nutrient Trading

I met Pat O’Connell, President of Evergreen Conservation Finance, at the Katoomba Meetings. Yesterday we had a broad discussion on ecosystem service finance, conservation finance, and utility finance. He brought up the following recent news on Pennsylvania’s nutrient trading program:
“Robert J. Fisher, President of R. J. Fisher & Associates and Chairman
of the Pennsylvania Builders Association’s [...]

Creating a Stormwater Utility

We were having a discussion yesterday with Margherita Pryor of our regional EPA office and she brought up this presentation on creating a stormwater utility. It was interesting for several reasons….gives a reasonable method to ’slice’ the problem of urban stormwater management using impervious surface areas, shows an adequate willingness to pay in several hundred communities, creates [...]

The Science and Economics of Sustainability

John Holdren, Director of the Woods Hole Research Center, made this presentation at the Katoomba Meetings earlier this month. ” The Science and Economics of Sustainability: Managing the Competing Uses of Land, Water, and Forests Under a Changing Climate” offers an abundance of sobering information on the state of the global environment and makes suggestions on [...]

The Economic and Market Value of Coasts and Estuaries

From Linwood Pendleton’s Foreword:
We encourage you to use this book as a primer, a reference, and a launching point for your own efforts to understand the potential economic benefits of coastal restoration where you live and work. The book is the seed of a living project to provide restoration professionals with the economic information and [...]

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and Forest Offsets

The Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences has created recommendations for forest offsets for RGGI.
They are very interesting! Think “scale’ as a major factor. From their Introduction:
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a cap-and-trade system designed to limit the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from electricity generation in 10 northeastern states starting in 2009. Power [...]

Getting the Water Right

Getting the Water Right
Andy Manale (EPA) and I met after the Katoomba Meetings. During our discussion, we spoke about a number of the critical water supply and water quality issues confronting us….in the very near term. Attached is the announcement of a meeting taking place in Tucson late in July organized by the Soil and Water Conservation Society.
Part of [...]

Overview Presentation on Ecosystem Service Markets

usda-presentation
I’ve been working on a presentation to RI US Department of Agricuture NRCS to give them an overview of ecosystem service markets.