Since we launched the Ecosystem Marketplace in October of 2004 we've brought you original features on water quality markets around Lake Tahoe and 'ecosystem farming' in South Africa. We've covered the case for including carbon sinks in climate change regulation, and the case against including carbon sinks. We've provided in-depth features on the financial value of blue orchard bees and their role in pollination and on emerging markets for protection and restoration of streams. And our library now contains over 500 individually selected items related to environmental markets.

Less than a week from today, on March 31, we're taking the Ecosystem Marketplace to the next level. At a major launch event at ABN Amro headquarters in London, the Marketwatch section of the website will kick off coverage of transactions in fourteen different markets around the world. These markets range from Australia to Costa Rica, and from California to the EU, but all of them are based on the rapidly growing recognition that environmental results have clear financial value. We've known for a long time what it was worth to cut trees down; now we're going to have a look at what it's worth to keep them standing.

While we're excited about these new price signals for conservation and restoration, we recognize that we're in the very early stages. The information we've gathered from these markets is necessarily incomplete, and all of the evidence on the environmental results is not yet in. Still, it's clear that these schemes designed to make conservation and environmental performances profitable are moving beyond anecdotal examples into global significance. We hope you'll write to let us know of additional examples or transactions we haven't yet covered, and that you find the Marketwatch a useful aid to your thinking on these important issues.

- Adam Davis, Editor-in-Chief
- Ricardo Bayon, Managing Editor
- Michael Jenkins, Publisher