The Ecosystem Marketplace's Mitigation Mail
Conservation and Wetland News You Can Bank On

This month's mitigation banking--true to the holiday season and the beginning of a New Year--has elements of both hope and opportunity. And yes, a bit of fear.

On the hope and opportunity side of things, the U.S. Forest Service recently launched a strategy to engage private land owners in the protection of open space, in part, by working with them to take advantage of markets for ecosystem services. As one of the most mature ecosystem service markets, it is likely that mitigation banking will be an important reference point as the Service advances their new strategy. Meanwhile, in both Oregon and Indiana, wetland restoration business ventures have spawned new banks. Interestingly, both these cases are examples of ecologists-turned-businesspeople, lured to their business ventures by attractive credit prices and comfortable profit margins. In another part of the country, Georgia, International Paper seized on the opportunity to sell a mitigation bank for Red-cockaded Woodpecker to the State for $37.5 million.

In another part of the globe, beyond the hope and the promise, fear was the most visible reaction to recently released regulations for a Biobanking program in the Australian state of New South Wales. Regulations there were met with strong criticism that the rules had been watered down to allow areas previously considered "no-go" zones to be cleared. Back in the US, some trepidation surrounds the Army Corps' announcement that the Pionciana Parkway can be built through the middle of a Florida mitigation bank, raising a haunting question for the mitigation industry: what is the meaning of an in perpetuity conservation easement?

—The Ecosystem Marketplace Team

If you have comments or would like to submit news stories, write to us at mitmail@ecosystemmarketplace.com.