Despite disappointment shrouding the Copenhagen Accord, a strong consensus emerged over the need to develop financing mechanisms for REDD. To make REDD reality, however, the forestry markets must become more transparent and trustworthy to attract investors. To enhance these qualities, Ecosystem Marketplace spent the past year surveying over 100 market participants, accounting for 230 projects generating carbon credits across 40 countries and a 20- year time period. The result of these efforts is State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009: Taking Root & Branching Out, released January 13th. Respondents documented the impact of carbon finance on more than two million hectares of forests over the past 20 years. That impact has resulted in the capture of nearly 70 million tonnes of carbon (MtCO2) in trees – although the bulk of this can be attributed to one massive project in the early 1990s that captured 47 MtCO2. The findings also indicate substantial shifts in growth patterns over the past three years, during which these markets have matured substantially.

The attached powerpoint offers an overview of all the major findings of this report.