CHALLENGE
Markets require reliable and transparent information in order to function; this applies equally to new and emerging markets for ecosystems services for carbon, water and biodiversity, as it does to traditional financial markets. Investors need to fully understand the risks and opportunities associated with their ecological dependencies, assets and investments. Only then will substantial private investment move toward supporting sustainable resource outcomes.

APPROACH
The “Ecosystem Marketplace” is a Forest Trends initiative that seeks to consolidate and report free and independent information on ecosystem markets and payments for environmental services through regular market reports. Historically, various businesses and foundations have supported the Ecosystem Marketplace (e.g., Bloomberg, JP Morgan Chase, Moore, Packard, MacArthur).

PROFOR's partnership with Forest Trends aims to secure a sustainable institutional platform for ecosystems market intelligence in order to scale up operations and reduce risks in investment in natural capital. This support is expected to help Forest Trends ramp up its analytical and targeted outreach work. It builds on previous work, including “Mobilization of Ecosystem Services Payments in China” though Forest Trends in 2006, and “Matrix: Mapping Payments for Ecosystem Services”, also through Forest Trends, in 2008.

RESULTS

This partnership helped Forest Trends to successfully organize multiple roundtable meetings (see below). The meetings attracted a wide audience of policymakers, practitioners, foundations, multi-lateral and bilateral institutions. Through wide media coverage, the materials reached international readers and academia.

• Roundtable on “Beyond Carbon: Emerging Market Tools for Business Social Responsibility” (Panel event and media summary/outcomes brief, Carbon Expo – June 2013)
• Roundtable on “Public Investments and Incentives: How to Achieve Effective and Sustainable Demand for Ecosystem Services and Land Use Outcomes” (December 2013)
• Roundtable on “Need to Know Basis: Self-reporting, Self-regulation, and User-driven Environmental Intelligence in the Age of Corporate Disclosure” (February 2014)
• Roundtable on “Supply Change: Corporations, Commodities, and Commitments that Count (March 2015)

The partnership also financed the production of reports that provide strategic and targeted delivery of ecosystem market intelligence:

• The Matrix 2013, a market inventory of policy approaches, results, and projections
• State of the Forest Carbon Market 2013, State of the Forest Carbon Market 2014, and State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2014, collectively forming a series of reports highlighting trends in forest carbon offset demand, and tracking performance-based payments for emissions reductions in forests
• State of Water Investment 2014, studying investments in watersheds
• The Results Report 2012: Sharing Progress on the Path to Adoption of Clean Cooking Solutions was published and launched in partnership with the United Nations Foundation as part of an event for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. The report shows that targeted users were marginal low-income consumers, who benefited from direct distribution. The number of stoves distributed increased two-fold over the previous year, with 8.2 million stoves distributed in 2012.
• Several more reports, news articles, blogs and other market intelligence are available at the Ecosystem Marketplace website and Forest Trends website.

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