Gaining Ground: State of Private Investment in Nature 2026

This new report by Ecosystem Marketplace and The Nature Conservancy shows that private investment in nature has grown substantially over the past decade, reflecting a market that is far more sophisticated, transparent, and standardized than when the last edition was published in 2016. As interest in nature investing continues to grow, there remains a lack […]

Nature’s investment frontier

Practical paths forward for biodiversity markets and finance

Biodiversity-based investment themes are suddenly in the spotlight, after years of feeling like a bit of an understudy to the carbon market. Given a ballooning finance gap for nature, and the obvious materiality of nature risk to business, there is renewed interest in economic instruments that can drive private investment toward interventions to avert biodiversity […]

Infographic: Forest-based Value Chains: A New Bioeconomy for the Amazon Forest

Forest Trends partners with indigenous communities in Brazil’s Tupi Mosaic to develop economic enterprises that promote forest conservation. We’re building sustainable value chains for açaí, artisan products, Brazil nuts, and cacao, and demonstrating the business model for native seeds and seedlings. The “Amazon Bioeconomy” we are building mimics traditional Amazon management systems, creating a diversity […]

The World is Losing Its Forests. Community-led Conservation Can Help.

Infographic

Why Gender Equality is at the Heart of Our Water Security Strategy in Peru

In partnership with the Peruvian government, civil society, academia, and women leaders from communities to national ministries, Forest Trends is building a strategy that aims to tackle both water security and gender equality. Our goal is to make increased investment in and capacity for natural infrastructure a central piece of Peru’s water security and climate […]

The Living Pharmacy Project

Forest Trends has been working with Yawanawa and Suruí indigenous communities since 2014 to establish “Living Pharmacies.” By building medicinal plant gardens in their villages, communities can reclaim and maintain a resource critical to their health and cultural identity. Each Living Pharmacy is a place where elders can pass their traditions on to the next[…]

Evaluating Potential for Water Transfer Markets in the US Southeast

Every few years, the Southeast US experiences a major drought – the most recent occurring in 2016, when soil moisture reached the 2nd lowest ever recorded between October to November.1 During these times, the increased frequency of above-normal temperatures and below-normal rainfall during the growing season can result in major agricultural impacts, including: row-crop losses[…]

Screening New Market Opportunities for Sustainably Managed State, Private and Tribal Working Forests

Sustainably managed working forests provide not just wood and fiber, but a range of other benefits: clean water, wildlife habitat, carbon storage, flood protection, recreational and cultural values, and more. Scaling up investments in sustainable forest management can generate financial returns for good stewardship of these multiple conservation values. The United States Forest Service (USFS) […]

Lessons Learned on Demand

Demand Dynamics of Ecosystem Markets in the United States

This study on lessons learned about demand in ecosystem markets in the United States was commissioned to help the National Network on Water Quality Trading (NNWQT) identify transferrable lessons for their strategy on stimulating demand for water quality credits and other market-based incentives for nonpoint source water quality. A rapid review of historical experience in […]

Mapping Potential Demand for Water Quality Trading in the United States

Water quality trading is a promising tool that offers a flexible, more cost-effective approach to reducing pollution in our waterways than more traditional engineered solutions. Yet a lack of sufficient demand for credits has been a consistent barrier to scaling up water quality trading in the United States. The National Network on Water Quality Trading […]

State of Biodiversity Mitigation 2017

Markets and Compensation for Global Infrastructure Development

Between 2015 and 2030, global spending on transportation networks, energy, utilities, and other essential infrastructure is expected to double. This infrastructure development is necessary to keep pace with growing populations, our current infrastructure’s depreciation, and the moral imperative to provide a basic modern standard of living for all people on this planet. However, this infrastructure […]

State of Watershed Investment 2016

Alliances for Green Infrastructure

It’s been a banner year for green infrastructure, from the roll-out of the Paris climate deal to Peru’s groundbreaking new water security strategy to California’s recent legislation recognizing nature as a critical part of its water infrastructure. In 2015, governments, water utilities, companies, and communities spent nearly $25 billion on payments for green infrastructure for water. More than 400 programs in 62 countries invested in the natural ability of forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other ecosystems to ensure clean, reliable water supplies for cities and communities, and to combat threats from rapid urban expansion and agricultural pollution.

An Atlas of Ecosystem Markets in the United States

Today’s natural resource managers and policy makers operate in a rapidly changing landscape. Decision makers must contend with biophysical shifts from development and climate change, as well as changes in economic development patterns and social values, like growing interest in renewable energy and market-based conservation. To make sound decisions, leaders need a comprehensive and continually updated understanding of the dynamics at play in managing natural resources. Recent years have brought a steep increase in publicly available scientific and social data, but making sense of these inputs in decision making is not always easy.

Ecosystem Markets and Ecosystem Valuation

Valuing Ecosystem Services on Conservation Lands 101

Un Viaje a las Profundidades

Businesses Wise Up to Supply-Chain Water Risks

Fears about rising water risk, the carbon world’s recent embrace of landscape approaches, and natural capital’s growing profile in the business world all add to the momentum of water stewardship.

State of Watershed Payments Report (Executive Summary for Business)

This Executive Summary for Business builds upon data and analysis from Charting New Waters: State of Watershed Payments 2012. In Charting New Waters, we track the size, scope, and outlook for investments in watershed services and in the ecological infrastructure from which they flow, focusing on transactions between investors and watershed service providers. This Executive […]

State of Watershed Payments 2012

Charting New Waters

Executive Summary: Charting New Waters

State of Watershed Payments 2012

2012年流域服务支付状况

勾画水资源新蓝图 - 执行摘要 (Charting New Waters - Exec Summ in Chinese)

Charting New Waters

State of Watershed Payments 2012

State of Watershed Payments 2012 is the second installment of the most comprehensive inventory to date of initiatives around the world that are paying individuals and communities to revive or preserve water-friendly features of the landscape. The number of initiatives that protect and restore forests, wetlands, and other water-rich ecosystems has nearly doubled in just […]

Trazando las Nuevas Aguas

State of Biodiversity Markets 2011

Offset and Compensation Programs Worldwide

This report is a companion paper to the initial report (State of Biodiversity Markets) that highlights the key developments over the past year. The report finds that global interest in biodiversity offsets and compensation has continued to develop over the past year – somewhat surprisingly, given the financial challenges that plague the private and public […]