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Pending Pilot Projects

Southern New England Forest Fund

Rhode Island Eco/Development Assessment Pilot

Funded Pilot Projects

Developing a Market for Nesting Bird Habitat on Active Farm Hayfields

Funding: USDA Conservation Innovation Grant of $ 1.2 million

Partners: EcoAsset Markets, Inc. and the University of Rhode Island

Establishing community-based markets for wildlife habitat protection and other ecological services is a promising innovation, particularly at the urban-rural fringe where residents in or near rural communities value the quality of life provided by sustaining a farmed landscape that supports wildlife. Non-farm residents are also often willing to pay to sustain the rural character of their communities. The purpose of this project is to develop a market in which community residents pay farmers to adopt farming practices that enhance wildlife habitat services from fields currently in production. Specifically, this project will begin by creating a market around grassland nesting birds, targeting bobolinks and hay production on Conanicut Island in Newport County , Rhode Island . Increasing residential and tourism development threaten this coastal landscape. Hayfield cutting endangers bobolink-nesting habitat. The project will develop a new product that farmers can sell from hayfields to consumers willing to pay to improve nesting success of birds. Additionally, it will create a market template for expansion to other urban-rural fringe communities and for application to other ecosystem services.

web site: www.jamestownbobolinkproject.com

Funding from Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, The Nature Conservancy, and The Champlin Foundations

EcoAsset Markets, Inc. is developing a prototypical system for fund managers, developers, environmental regulatory agencies, and cities and towns to measure the ecosystem enhancements that accrue from sustainable, ‘smart’ land use changes. The system will also allow those users to monitor ecosystem enhancements over time, measure and quantify the resulting ecosystem service enhancements, and appraise the value of the enhancements. Finally, the monitoring and valuation tool would provide the basis for certification of ecosystem enhancements allowing the users to participate in the evolving markets for these valuable natural assets.

Developers who use this system would benefit by reducing the cost of permitting processes while providing other revenue streams for their developments. Communities and regulatory agencies who consider these systematic changes in land use policy would benefit by 1) enhanced land planning capabilities; 2) tax reform measures that provide incentives for environmentally responsible land use changes; 3) additional revenue from certified ecosystem service enhancements. Fund managers will be able to better target investments while having more perspective on risks.

Pilot Market Development Initiatives

Funded Pilot Projects

Developing a Market for Nesting Bird Habitat on Active Farm Hayfields

Funding: USDA Conservation Innovation Grant of $ 1.2 million

Partners: EcoAsset Markets, Inc. and the University of Rhode Island

Establishing community-based markets for wildlife habitat protection and other ecological services is a promising innovation, particularly at the urban-rural fringe where residents in or near rural communities value the quality of life provided by sustaining a farmed landscape that supports wildlife. Non-farm residents are also often willing to pay to sustain the rural character of their communities. The purpose of this project is to develop a market in which community residents pay farmers to adopt farming practices that enhance wildlife habitat services from fields currently in production. Specifically, this project will begin by creating a market around grassland nesting birds, targeting bobolinks and hay production on Conanicut Island in Newport County , Rhode Island . Increasing residential and tourism development threaten this coastal landscape. Hayfield cutting endangers bobolink-nesting habitat. The project will develop a new product that farmers can sell from hayfields to consumers willing to pay to improve nesting success of birds. Additionally, it will create a market template for expansion to other urban-rural fringe communities and for application to other ecosystem services.

web site: www.jamestownbobolinkproject.com

Rhode Island Eco/Development Assessment Pilot

Funding from Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, The Nature Conservancy, and The Champlin Foundations

EcoAsset Markets, Inc. is developing a prototypical system for fund managers, developers, environmental regulatory agencies, and cities and towns to measure the ecosystem enhancements that accrue from sustainable, ‘smart’ land use changes. The system will also allow those users to monitor ecosystem enhancements over time, measure and quantify the resulting ecosystem service enhancements, and appraise the value of the enhancements. Finally, the monitoring and valuation tool would provide the basis for certification of ecosystem enhancements allowing the users to participate in the evolving markets for these valuable natural assets.

Developers who use this system would benefit by reducing the cost of permitting processes while providing other revenue streams for their developments. Communities and regulatory agencies who consider these systematic changes in land use policy would benefit by 1) enhanced land planning capabilities; 2) tax reform measures that provide incentives for environmentally responsible land use changes; 3) additional revenue from certified ecosystem service enhancements. Fund managers will be able to better target investments while having more perspective on risks.

Pending Pilot Projects

Southern New England Forest Fund

The Nature Conservancy and EcoAsset Markets, Inc. are developing a business plan to create a new, privately leveraged conservation tool allowing for conservation of small private forestland. Specifically, our goal is to remove the threat of development from 10,000 privately owned acres within three 11,000-acre intact forest areas by 2020. The project partners are looking at a number of economies that might make these small forestland aggregations financially feasible mechanisms to promote sustainable forestry and provide new revenue sources to private landowners.

EcoAsset Markets, Inc. and the Nature Conservancy is looking for a solution that will:

allow us to develop sustainable, ecosystem service enhancing harvesting operations on significant forest acreage while keeping the land in private ownership
make use of new evolving payments and income from ecosystem service markets and incentives
provide liquidity to landowners to meet long-term financial needs
use the resource in a financially sustainable way.

Developing Chesapeake Bay Nutrient Trading Markets

The Chesapeake Bay Watershed is an ecologically and politically complex system. Policy creation, land management decisions and economic development related to addressing the broad problem of agricultural nutrient runoff requires 1) an acceptance that the watershed comprises a broad range of governments and ecologies; 2) analytic tools that allow community and regional cooperation to achieve successful remediation policies and markets; 3) assessment, monitoring protocols and management practices that are dynamic and capable of adaptively responding to new knowledge and information; 4) community analysis of property rights issues to address the externalities that currently reinforce harmful land management practices.

EAM has approached several potential partners and the Packard Foundation with an approach to pilot nutrient trading exchanges in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The project involves information and knowledge base systems, policy initiatives, and a set of exchange pilots.

The Nature Conservancy and EcoAsset Markets, Inc. are developing a business plan to create a new, privately leveraged conservation tool allowing for conservation of small private forestland. Specifically, our goal is to remove the threat of development from 10,000 privately owned acres within three 11,000-acre intact forest areas by 2020. The project partners are looking at a number of economies that might make these small forestland aggregations financially feasible mechanisms to promote sustainable forestry and provide new revenue sources to private landowners.

EcoAsset Markets, Inc. and the Nature Conservancy is looking for a solution that will:

allow us to develop sustainable, ecosystem service enhancing harvesting operations on significant forest acreage while keeping the land in private ownership
make use of new evolving payments and income from ecosystem service markets and incentives
provide liquidity to landowners to meet long-term financial needs
use the resource in a financially sustainable way.

Developing Chesapeake Bay Nutrient Trading Markets

The Chesapeake Bay Watershed is an ecologically and politically complex system. Policy creation, land management decisions and economic development related to addressing the broad problem of agricultural nutrient runoff requires 1) an acceptance that the watershed comprises a broad range of governments and ecologies; 2) analytic tools that allow community and regional cooperation to achieve successful remediation policies and markets; 3) assessment, monitoring protocols and management practices that are dynamic and capable of adaptively responding to new knowledge and information; 4) community analysis of property rights issues to address the externalities that currently reinforce harmful land management practices.

EAM has approached several potential partners and the Packard Foundation with an approach to pilot nutrient trading exchanges in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The project involves information and knowledge base systems, policy initiatives, and a set of exchange pilots.