Exploring New Turf
At the close of the first quarter of 2007, The Ecosystem Marketplace would like to draw attention to those exploring new turf.
Two events, in particular, should produce important debates and interesting ideas this month. The National Mitigation and Conservation Banking Conference will celebrate its 10th Anniversary and investigate "The Next Decade of Banking" April 10-13 in St. Louis. And the Wall Street Green Trading Summit will look ahead into the coming "Year of Carbon Finance and Trading" April 16 -17 in New York City.
In addition to looking ahead at upcoming events, we look back in this edition at the recent Carbon Market Insights conference in Copenhagen, where we spoke with Jørund Buen of Point Carbon about the carbon market’s new frontiers: the market for Joint Implementation (JI) projects in Eastern Europe; the evolving market for carbon credits in the United States; and the expanding voluntary carbon market. We also spotlight a project that is working to attract finance to China’s forestry sector (an area largely unexplored by those interested in carbon finance in the country) through the Clean Development Mechanism. And we check in at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting to investigate the use of a new approach to fisheries management. These systems, known as territorial use rights in fisheries (TURFs), are "probably the only way that we can manage fisheries in developing countries," says UC Davis researcher James Wilen.
Last but not least, we shine a light on South Pole Carbon Asset Management as they break new ground by selling the first carbon offsets to be certified under the Gold Standard (GS), a certification process established in 2003 by a number of NGOs in partnership. "Some people were beginning to say the GS procedure was too complex, too unrealistic," says Renat Heuberger of South Pole. "This proves otherwise."
We hope you will enjoy these and other stories from the cutting edge of conversation as you head into April 2007.
— The Ecosystem Marketplace Team
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