Ecosystem Marketplace

Founded: 2004
Location: United States District of Columbia, DC
Fields: Environmentalism
Website: www.ecosystemmarketplace.com

Ecosystem Marketplace is a US-based non-profit organization that specifically focuses on increasing transparency and providing reliable information for ecosystem services and payment schemes. The idea launching Ecosystem Marketplace was borne out of meeting by members of the Katoomba Group, an international working group composed of leading experts from forest and energy industries, research institutions, the financial world, and environmental NGOs dedicated to advancing markets for some of the ecosystem services provided by forests – such as watershed protection, biodiversity habitat, and carbon capture and storage. Both Ecosystem Marketplace and the Katoomba Group are projects of the D.C.–based nonprofit Forest Trends. Ecosystem Marketplace specializes in market-based approaches to environmental protection—in the public and private spheres—regarding greenhouse gases, water, biodiversity, and conservation. Ecosystem Marketplace's website states: "We believe that by providing solid and trust-worthy information on prices, regulation, science, and other market-relevant issues, markets for ecosystem services will one day become a fundamental part of our economic and environmental system, helping give value to environmental services that have, for too long, been taken for granted.".

Ecosystem Marketplace and New Carbon Finance jointly produce an annual report on the voluntary carbon markets based on a population survey of offset suppliers in the voluntary markets. The State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2007 was covered by multiple media outlets, most notablyThe Economist[2]. This year's report, The State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2008 was released in early May.Reuters India published an article on the report when it was released.