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Launched in 2004, the Ecosystem Marketplace is a leading source of information and market intelligence on environmental markets and payments for ecosystem services (PES). An initiative of the non-profit organization Forest Trends, the Ecosystem Marketplace emerged from the belief that by providing transparent, solid, and trustworthy information on prices, regulation, science, and other market-relevant issues, we can accelerate the development of these ecosystem service markets – helping give value to environmental services that, for too long, have been taken for granted.

Ever since the US launched the first large-scale market for an environmental commodity, sulfur dioxide (SO2), markets have been revolutionizing the way governments approach environmental policy. Since then we have seen the creation of multi-billion dollar markets in greenhouse gases, wetlands, water pollutants, and even endangered species. And these are just the formal markets. Throughout the world, a range of sectors are also engaged in direct payments for environmental services.

The use of markets and market-like mechanisms to conserve and pay for ecosystem services is a growing global trend. But markets – and environmental markets in particular – do not run on will alone. They require sound policy, strong science, and most of all, timely and transparent information. For markets to work, people need to know they exist, and participants need to see, with clarity and ease, who is buying, who is selling, and at what price. There also needs to be a clear understanding of the policy changes that drive these markets, as well as the science that underpins them.

This is what the Ecosystem Marketplace is all about. EcosystemMarketplace.com serves as a clearinghouse of timely and transparent information on the emerging markets and payment schemes for ecosystem services. We cover information that is essential to the proper functioning of any market: prices, transactions, methodologies, buyers, sellers, relevant policies, as well as who is benefitting and who is not. Additionally, we have convened and will continue to convene diverse stakeholders that affect these transactions and the impact of these markets on both the ecosystems themselves and on the low-income producers and community groups in developing countries who act as stewards.

We know that markets aren't perfect: that they don't always work to everyone's benefit, and that they can have some negative and unintended consequences. However, we also know that well-informed and transparent markets are more liquid, more equitable, and easier to modify. To that end, we provide a steady flow of information on what works and what doesn't; which approaches to valuing the services of ecosystems really deliver on their double promise of a better environment and real return on investment, and which do not. We also attempt to point out the problems as well as the potential of these emerging markets.

In providing this transparent and unfiltered market-relevant information, we hope not only to facilitate transactions (thereby lowering transaction costs), but also to catalyze new thinking and – why not – maybe even to spur the development of new markets. Our audiences, therefore, are many. They include traders in environmental commodities, government regulators, businesses affected by environmental regulation, banks and financiers, scientists, environmental and community development organizations, as well as low-income producers interested in tapping into these markets. They – we – all need to be involved for environmental markets to reach their full potential.

Where We Come From

The idea for what would eventually become the Ecosystem Marketplace arose at a meeting of the Katoomba Group, a network of ‘payments for ecosystem services (PES)’ practitioners from all sectors of society, also launched by Forest Trends. From its inception in the mountains surrounding Katoomba, Australia, in 1999, the Katoomba Group has expressly included more than just environmentalists and regulators, more than the "usual environmental suspects." Instead it has included bankers, forest product companies, businesses, grassroots activists, and journalists. And it has been truly global. It has brought together people from Australia, Mexico, Colombia, Sweden, Canada, U.K., Brazil, Indonesia, China, Japan, Uganda, the US, and dozens of other countries.

Our premise has always been that markets capable of changing the way the world works while protecting our dwindling environment will only be created by marrying the vision, the innovation, and the experience found throughout the world and in all sectors of society. Inspired by the tremendous growth and international recognition that Ecosystem Marketplace has experienced since its 2004 inception, we believe that the initiative can be a vehicle for real change for ecosystems, businesses, and local communities.

To contact us:

Ecosystem Marketplace
1050 Potomac St NW
Washington, DC  20007

Tel: 202.298.3000
Fax: 202.298.3014
Email: general@forestcarbonportal.com