17 March 2009

Martin Delivers Paper to East Asian Environmental Economists

Hy Martin, Senior Program Associate, co-authored, with Gijsbert Nollen, a paper entitled Financial and Economic Analysis of Forestry Carbon Trading as a Project Development Funding Mechanism. A presentation by the same name was delivered by Mr. Martin to 150+ professionals from the fields of public policy, private enterprise and academia during the 4th East Asian Symposium on Environmental and Natural Resource Economics hosted by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) in Taipei, Taiwan on March 2-3, 2009. See CIER's Symposium website for further detail.

This presentation and paper detailed the inability of the existing carbon markets to act as the sole source of financing for environmental and social investment projects. Payment for ecosystem services (PES) was presented as an alternative means of financial support through diversifying investments in financial, natural and social capital. Project developers, financiers and implementers are able to utilize PES as a means to spur local innovation while abiding by sound investment principles, which in turn mobilizes private financing in the fight against rural poverty and global climate change.

A copy of this paper can be viewed in the Download Center.