13.3.0 Introductie

Documentgegevens:

Mr. T.E. Lambooy, datum 17-11-2010

Datum: 17-11-2010
Auteur: Mr. T.E. Lambooy
JCDI: JCDI:ADS365808:1
Vakgebied(en): Ondernemingsrecht (V)

In this section new market mechanisms and related investment opportunities that support conservation and a sustainable use of BES will be explored. The general perception that BES has no monetary value appears to be disputable. In fact, private actors have been engaged for a long time in sustainable forestry, eco-tourism, and in nature compensation schemes concerning the loss of wetlands and other natural habitats. These types of business have recently gained more attention and various companies have chosen to enhance the pro-biodiversity value of their business. A new area of business that directly supports BES is the creation of 'biodiversity offsets' or 'biodiversity credits'. Sections 13.3.1-13.3.3 will elaborate on respectively sustainable forestry, nature conservation including wetland banking and biodiversity offset programmes, and eco-tourism.

It appears that various types of finance mechanisms are currently in use. Besides traditional financing methods, innovative finance mechanisms are also developing. One of them aims at making users of ecosystem services pay for them, and is called 'Payment for Ecosystem Services' (PES) (see Box 13.2). Over the last decade, we have seen various PES systems rapidly develop such as those for carbon sequestration and watershed protection. Section 13.3.4 will discuss the emerging market of watershed protection and section 13.3.5 will illustrate how funds from private actors are being channelled into voluntary carbon sequestration projects, including projects based on REDD (Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Forest Degradation).

Box 13.2 Payment for Ecosystem Services

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) represents a flexible compensation mechanism in which ecosystem service providers are compensated by service users.1 An example is paying for water, i.e. in fact paying for nature's hydrological services - primarily the filtering of water through forests or wetlands. This is useful in the situation in which farmers in an upstream area preserve forests so that farmers or water companies in a downstream area can benefit from a continuous and regular supply ofclean water. If the forest would be logged, the farmers and water company downstream bear the risk of suffering from dirty water due to erosion, and from a less secure supply of water because when there is no forest, rainfall will be more irregular. In that case, for the downstream users the risk of flooding will also be higher. For these reasons, the downstream users should be willing to compensate the upstream farmers to maintain the forest in good quality. Through PES, "those that benefit from these outputs can pay forest managers and owners directly to manage their forests for the production or protection of these outputs".2

There are different markets for ecosystem services.3 The main categories of ecosystem services that are being traded include carbon sequestration, water management services, biodiversity conservation and landscape protection.4 Often, payments are bundled securing all or a combination of carbon, water, and biodiversity services.5 Bundled payments also include those in which the ecosystem service payment is built into the price of the product, such as certified timber or certified produce.

PES markets can also be differentiated from another perspective: (i) compliance markets, i.e. public regulation requires the payment for the use of ecosystem services (e.g. mandatory carbon emission trading for certain industries); (ii) government-mediated markets, i.e. where the government is the intermediate party that collects payments from users and distributes them to the service providers (e.g. PES markets based on water services); and (iii) voluntary markets, i.e. in which companies voluntarily decide to compensate their impact on BES by purchasing compensatory credits (e.g. voluntary carbon emission credits and biodiversity offsets).6

Toon alle voetnoten

Voetnoten

Voetnoten

Definition as used by Katoomba Group's Ecosystem Marketplace, at: http://www.ecosys-temmarketplace.com/, accessed on 2 March 2010; Forest Trends, The Katoomba Group, and UNEP, 'Payments for Ecosystem Services: Getting started', May 2008, at: http://www.katoombagroup.org/documents/publications/GettingStarted.pdf, accessed on 1 March 2010.

Financing Sustainable Forest Management - Forest Policy Brief, at: http://www.fao.org/ forestry/media/16559/1/0/, accessed on 2 August 2009. See further: D. Perrot-Maitre, P. Davis, 'Case Studies of Markets and Innovative Financial Mechanisms for Water Services from Forests', 2001, at: http://www.conservationfinance.org/Documents/CF_related_papers/ water_service_markets.pdf, accessed on 15 January 2010; WWF, P. Gutman (ed.), From Goodwill to Payments for Environmental Services: A Survey of Financing Options for Sustainable Natural Resource Management in Developing Countries', 2004.

N. Carroll, M. Jenkins, The Matrix: Mapping Ecosystem Service Markets, Katoomba Group's Ecosystem Marketplace', 17 June 2008, at: http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/ dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=5917§ion=home&eod=1, accessed on 3 October 2009.

Biodiversity markets design incentives for the preservation and managing of biodiversity including habitat and species. Definition as used by the Katoomba Group's Ecosystem Marketplace (see note 27). Also, see: P.A. Verweij, M. Schouten, P. van Beukering, J. Triana, K. van der Leeuw and S. Hess, 'Keeping the Amazon forests standing: a matter of values' (WWF: Zeist, the Netherlands, 2009), p. 72; P.A. Verweij, and M. de Man, 'Looking after protected areas: Looking for increased donor support', report commissioned by Greenpeace International, and official submission to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Greenpeace International, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2005; P.A. Verweij, Increasing revenues for protected areas: a wealth of financing options', report commissioned by Greenpeace International, Department of Science, Technology and Society, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2004, p. 22; P.A. Verweij, (Ed.) 'Understanding and capturing the multiple values of tropical forests', Tropenbos International, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 2002, p.140. See for an introduction on landscape auctions: D. Wensing, in Forum CSR International, 2010, pp. 35-37.

Definition as used by Katoomba Group's Ecosystem Marketplace; see supra note 27.

Government-mediated markets are publicly-administered programmes that use public funds to pay private landowners for the stewardship of ecosystem services on their property. Definition as used by: Katoomba Group's Ecosystem Marketplace; see supra note 27.