The Conservation Finance Guide

Finally, a comprehensive book on land conservation financing for community and regional conservation leaders. A Field Guide to Conservation Finance provides essential advice on how to tackle the universal obstacle to protecting private land in America: lack of money. Story Clark dispels the myths that conservationists can access only private funds controlled by individuals or that only large conservation organizations have clout with big capital markets. She shows how small land conservation organizations can achieve conservation goals using both traditional and cutting-edge financial strategies. Clark outlines essential tools for raising money, borrowing money, and reducing the cost of transactions. She covers a range of subjects including transfer fees, voluntary surcharges, seller financing, revolving funds, and Project Related Investment programs (PRIs). A clear, well-written overview of the basics of conservation finance with useful insights and real stories combine to create a book that is an invaluable and accessible guide for land trusts seeking to protect more land.

As the world faces unprecedented challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss, the resources needed far outstrip the capabilities of nonprofits and even governments. Yet there are seeds of hope—and much of that hope comes from the efforts of the private sector. Impact investing is rapidly becoming an essential tool, alongside philanthropy and government funding, in tackling these major problems. Valuing Nature presents a new set of nature-based investment areas to help conservationists and investors work together. NatureVest founder William Ginn outlines the emerging private sector investing opportunities in natural assets such as green infrastructure, forests, soils, and fisheries. The first part of Valuing Nature examines the scope of nature-based impact investing while also presenting a practical overview of its limitations and the challenges facing the private sector. The second part of the book offers tools for investors and organizations to consider as they develop their own projects and tips on how nonprofits can successfully navigate this new space. Case studies from around the world demonstrate how we can use private capital to achieve more sustainable uses of our natural resources without the unintended consequences plaguing so many of our current efforts. Valuing Nature provides a roadmap for conservation professionals, nonprofit managers, and impact investors seeking to use market-based strategies to improve the management of natural systems.

Industries that drive economic growth and support our comfortable modern lifestyles have exploited natural resources to do so. But now there's growing understanding that business can benefit from a better relationship with the environment. Leading corporations have begun to leverage nature-based remediation, restoration, and enhanced lands management to meet a variety of business needs, such as increasing employee engagement and establishing key performance indicators for reporting and disclosures. Strategic Corporate Conservation Planning offers fresh insights for corporations and environmental groups looking to create mutually beneficial partnerships that use conservation action to address business challenges and realize meaningful environmental outcomes. Recognizing the long history of mistrust between corporate action and environmental effort, Strategic Corporate Conservation Planning begins by explaining how to identify priorities that will yield a beneficial relationship between a company and nonprofit. Next, O'Gorman offers steps for creating ecologically-focused projects that address key business needs. Chapters highlight existing projects with different scales of engagement, emphasizing that headline-generating, multimillion dollar commitments are not necessarily the most effective approach. Myriad case studies featuring programs from habitat restoration to environmental educational initiatives at companies like Bridgestone USA, General Motors, and CRH Americas are included to help spark new ideas. With limited government funding available for conservation and increasing competition for grant support, corporate efforts can fill a growing need for environmental stewardship while also providing business benefits. Strategic Corporate Conservation Planning presents a comprehensive approach for effective engagement between the public and private sector, encouraging pragmatic partnerships that benefit us all.

The conservation of biodiversity is now big business. Whether called conservation banking, species banking, habitat banking, biodiversity banking, biodiversity offsets, compensatory mitigation or ecological footprint offsetting, the idea of financially valuing biodiversity and using the market and businesses to promote conservation is growing rapidly. This handbook is a comprehensive guide to conservation banking, explaining what it is and how it works. Written by leading ecosystem market experts, the book provides practical guidance, tools, case studies, analysis and insights into conservation banking and other market-based approaches to conservation. Coverage includes the origins of conservation banking, the pros and cons for conservation, how conservation banking works in reality, the legal, practical and financial aspects of setting up and running a conservation bank and how 'biodiversity off-sets' can be internationalized. Published with Ecosystem Marketplace

Worldwide, tourism is the largest industry, with ecotourism being an important segment of the market. Every year, millions of tourists around the world visit protected areas (PAs) or travel to destinations for nature-based recreation.While PAs often supply the most important part of such recreational experiences, they typically capture very little of the total economic benefits derived from ecotourism. A number of relatively simple, market-based mechanisms - known collectively as tourism user fees (TUFs) -- can gather significant revenues from tourism-based activities, which can then be directed toward supporting PAs and other conservation efforts. The fees partially reflect the cost of supplying recreational services, the demand for natural resources, and the value that visitors place on their experience at the site. The direct link between maintaining natural areas and income from user fees is a strong economic incentive for conservation. Most TUFs are site-level mechanisms (i.e. specific fees for specific activities are collected at PA sites). These site based finance mechanisms are broadly referred to as visitor use fees. A few other types of fees are national level mechanisms. This chapter focuses primarily on site level fees.

First Published in 2010. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

It has become clear during recent global deliberations on biodiversity conservation that achieving Protected Area (PA) financial sustainability will require major changes in the way that PA funding is conceptualized, captured and used. With many, if not most, PAs facing funding crises, both in terms of the amount of funds available and how those are used, there is an urgent need to expand and diversify PA financial portfolios, and to ensure that funding reaches the groups and activities essential for biodiversity conservation. A range of innovative financing mechanisms have been developed and implemented to increase funding for PAs. This document aims to review and assess the status of a variety of these mechanisms, the major obstacles and opportunities for their implementation, and the potential for improvement.

Between 1996 and 2002, the Trust for Public Land helped communities design and pass ballot measures that raised more than $28 billion to fund parks and open space across the country. With growth and sprawl rapidly overtaking their open lands, communities are voting in record numbers to put money aside for conservation. Voters are coming to recognize the interrelationship between conserved land, a safe environment, a strong economy, and a livable community. Well-designed finance measures that reflect the unique conservation needs and funding capacities of their communities have a much better chance of passing. Writer Kim Hopper and the Trust for Public Land's team of conservation finance experts have put together a soup-to-nuts handbook on park and conservation funding. Designed for community leaders and involved citizens, local government officials and conservation professionals, this how-to guide explains the complex process of securing federal, state, and private conservation funds and--most importantly--researching, designing, and passing a local, voter-approved conservation finance measure. This book covers a range of campaign issues, from fundraising to field organizing to legal considerations.