Financing Ecosystem Service Markets: Issues and Opportunities

Abstract

INR’s long-term goal with this and other projects is to help revitalize rural economies and contribute to rural sustainability, while increasing ecosystem restoration and thoughtfully developing ecosystem services markets. To assist in meeting these goals, this project aims to understand and overcome a significant hurdle on the supply side of these emerging markets: the financing burden and risk shouldered by rural landowners who wish to invest in restoration activities. In order to accomplish these objectives, the project seeks to identify and apply financial mechanisms and institutional arrangements that enable landowners to access ecosystem services markets, a new and potentially long-term source of land and water stewardship income. Our strategy for meeting these objectives combines a number of approaches including: policy research; collaborative inquiry and learning with landowners and financiers; on-the-ground pilot project development; dissemination and outreach of project findings