In the space of less than a decade, the world’s carbon markets have risen to trade $30 billion annually. At GCP we believe that payments for ecosystem services will follow a similar pattern. To make this happen we aim to demonstrate the rewards of early investment in rainforests through CSR or innovative banking and insurance products designed to create “wealth that’s worth having”. At the same time we will raise awareness in relevant finance and corporate sectors that the risks of doing nothing to halt deforestation is a real and present threat to the businesses they invest in. This is especially relevant in the agri-business and hydro sectors that depend on rain from tropical forests. These businesses are at the nexus of risk from the growing conflict between food security, energy security and environmental security.
We are working with the private sector investment community to design innovative market mechanisms to increase positive incentives for the wise use of forests, and to value the 'living carbon' and ecosystem services they provide.
Canopy Capital - www.canopycapital.co.uk
Canopy Capital was established in 2007 to drive capital to the rainforest canopy. The GCP is founding partner and scientific adviser to the company. Canopy Capital has created an investment template for first-movers in an emerging market for Ecosystem Services. These include rainfall generation, moderation of extreme weather, carbon storage and biodiversity maintenance.
These services benefit humanity at local to global scales. If they are lost, there will be severe impacts on food, energy, and environmental security.
Putting a price on these services is like taking out an insurance policy to maintain our life support system and has the potential to generate billions of dollars for forest-owning nations.
The Forest-Footprint Disclosure Project
Investments involve risk, but the risks associated with agricultural commodities that drive deforestation can be assessed and managed. The Global Canopy Programme, with its world leading initiatives valuing forests as global ‘eco-utilities’, has convened an expert steering group to develop a product for the financial community called the Forest-Footprint Disclosure Project.
Building on the success of the sustainability reporting frameworks established by the Global Reporting Initiative and the Carbon Disclosure Project, and utilizing methodologies, including those developed by the Natural Value Initiative, the project partners intend to produce a tool that will help investors to assess the relative forest associated opportunities and risks of participating companies
The Climate Tree - www.theclimatetree.org
The Climate Tree is designed to facilitate corporate engagement in activities to reduce green house gas emissions through conserving tropical forests. The Climate Tree is an action-oriented alliance dedicated to tackling the major drivers of deforestation by combining the skills and talents of three leading organisations – The Tropical Forest Trust, the National Wildlife Federation and the Global Canopy Programme.
Amazonas Initiative
The
Amazonas Initiative is bringing together the Government of the State of Amazonas in Brazil with the UK Government and the carbon markets in London. Amazonas state has 16.9 billion hectares of forest under protected areas, whcih contains the equivalent of 7 billion tonnes of CO
2. Between 2003-2005 the State grew economically by 12.8% per annum whilst their deforestation rate fell by 53% due to pioneering fiscal and social mechanisms.
