WWETAC Projects
Project Title: Conservation markets roundtable: frameworks for bundling ecological services
Status: Completed
Principal Investigators: Gina LaRocco, Defenders of Wildlife; Sara Vickerman, Defenders of Wildlife
Collaborator: Robert Deal, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station
E-mail Contact: Gina LaRocco, glarocco[at]defenders.org
Key Issues/Problems Addressed: The key issue addressed in this project is to identify and understand some of the legal and political constraints of an ecosystem marketplace in Oregon, and specifically address which types of ecosystem credits can be bought and sold, and identify opportunities for landowners to access multiple sources of revenue for providing ecosystem services.
Study Objectives and Goals: The purpose of this study was to identify the opportunities that already exist to help advance implementation of an ecosystem marketplace in Oregon, as well as some of the potential limitations that could impede its progress. The goal was to help agencies and other interested parties in assessing what issues need to be immediately addressed and how best to proceed to ensure successful implementation.
General Description: There is increasing interest in designing more effective strategies to improve degraded ecosystems and to mitigate impacts from development. One market-based example is to create a multicredit trading system where various types of ecosystem credits can be bought and sold thru an ecosystem marketplace. Overall, a multicredit trading system could provide the opportunity to concurrently address several ecological values such as conservation of wetlands, fish and wildlife habitat, endangered species, water quality and quantity, and carbon sequestration. To assess the potential development of a multicredit trading system in Oregon, it is necessary to identify the opportunities and constraints that exist within the state to help further the system's development.
Status: A report was completed in February 2007, entitled "An Oregon Ecosystem Marketplace: Opportunities and Limitations," and has been used as the basis for a slide presentation Defenders' staff has presented at meetings and conferences, including the annual Oregon mitigation bankers meeting, Oregon's wetlands working group meeting, and the Oregon and Washington Wildlife Society's annual meeting. In addition, this report has spurred other requests for articles and was featured in the Oregon Insider, as well as the Society of American Forester's Western Forester publication.
Key Findings: Overall, there is broad interest in developing an Oregon ecosystem marketplace where multiple types of credits can be bought and sold. Currently, no laws or policies explicitly prohibit the creation of a marketplace. Opportunities include modifying the mechanisms used to implement existing programs, such as wetland mitigation banking, conservation banking, water quality, and carbon trading programs. However, there are some policies and mechanisms in place that could affect implementation of a marketplace system. Some of these include the following:
- Agency funding restrictions that disallow credits beyond an agency's needs
- Agency preferences for onsite mitigation
- Lack of coordination among agencies
- Disagreement among agencies and organizations on payments (additionality, etc.)
- Lack of a commonly accepted credit valuation tool
- Finding acceptable mechanisms to ensure integrity of banks.
To illustrate and test the concept of a multicredit bank and trade, a pilot project would give agencies, developers, policymakers, and practitioners the opportunity to determine how a multicredit trading system could work.
Deliverables: A report and subsequent articles on the subject matter, as well as a PowerPoint presentation based on the report's findings.
Background Citations:
Kysar, D. 2001. Sustainability, distribution and the macroeconomic analysis of law. B.C. L. Rev. 43: 1.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. 2006. The Oregon conservation strategy.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Guidance for the establishment, use and operation of conservation banks.
Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1531-1544
Oregon Constitution article IX, § 3(a)
Oregon Revised Statutes §§ 196.605; 196.620
Project ID: FY06JB8
