EM Launches Spanish Sister Site

Carina Bracer

Some of the world’s most innovative environmental financing mechanisms are coming out of Latin America, but coverage of these programs is often hard to come by, even within the region. To fix that, Ecosystem Marketplace is launching Valorando Naturaleza, a Spanish-language news service that will act both as a regional hub for news and information and a conduit between the Spanish and English-speaking worlds.

Some of the world’s most innovative environmental financing mechanisms are coming out of Latin America, but coverage of these programs is often hard to come by, even within the region. To fix that, Ecosystem Marketplace is launching Valorando Naturaleza, a Spanish-language news service that will act both as a regional hub for news and information and a conduit between the Spanish and English-speaking worlds.

11 March 2013 | When Fundacií³n Natura Bolivia (the Bolivian Nature Foundation, “Natura”) set out to improve water quality in the Santa Cruz Valleys, they did so by encouraging downstream users to help farmers in the hills implement sustainable agriculture practices – a groundbreaking solution that clearly illustrates the kinds of innovation that local NGOs can deliver when they adapt universal mechanisms to local realities. And Bolivia is   hardly alone in delivering such innovations, as we saw earlier this year in Charting New Waters: State of Watershed Payments 2012. That report documented roughly 30 unique and innovative water programs across Latin America, while Leveraging the Landscape: State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2012 reinforced Latin America’s position as a leader in forest carbon.

In order to support these developments and to harvest the lessons of Latin America for the rest of the world, Ecosystem Marketplace and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) last week soft-launched Valorando Naturaleza, a Latin American news service focused on environmental finance. The launch is being supported by webinars and live events throughout March and April in Washington DC, Chile and Colombia.

A Proven Model

The name means “Valuing Nature”, and it aims to increase transparency, catalyze ideas and stimulate new investments in ecosystems by providing accessible and reliable information about policy, finance, science and other topics related to environmental incentives.

This Spanish-language platform is based on the model followed during the last eight years by Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace, developing publicly available information including annual reports, quantitative market tracking, weekly articles, daily news and news briefs for different payments for ecosystem services stakeholders.

Utilizing a broad network of collaborators working with environmental incentives and journalists in the region, Valorando Naturaleza provides:

  • Original news coverage and in-depth analysis;
  • Daily news aggregation;
  • Profiles and opinion pieces by leaders in the region;
  • Listings of events, job openings, fellowships, courses, requests for bids and other opportunities;
  • A Library of relevant tools and reports and multimedia resources.

 

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