1 / 16

The Experience of Species Conservation Banking in the United States

The Experience of Species Conservation Banking in the United States. Jessica Fox. Conservation Markets Roundtable May 5, 2006 Willamette University, OR. Background.

croberson
Download Presentation

The Experience of Species Conservation Banking in the United States

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Experience of Species Conservation Banking in the United States Jessica Fox Conservation Markets Roundtable May 5, 2006 Willamette University, OR

  2. Background Conservation Banking is U.S. based and intended to create an incentive to proactively protect endangered species on private property. • Concept generally modeled after Wetland Mitigation Banking • California Guidance: 1995 • Federal Guidance: 2003

  3. CREDITS ECOLOGICAL ASSET CREDIT TRADING

  4. Different Perspectives Conservation Bank Owner: Liability (species) Asset (‘credit’) Credit Buyer: quick, legitimate mitigation option Biologist: more effective than traditional piece-meal mitigation.

  5. The Practice of Species Crediting (Jan 2004) 76 “conservation banks” were identified 35: Conservation Banking Agreements 18: Wetland Banking Agreements 5: Habitat Conservation Plans 6: Memorandums of Agreement 6: Safe Harbor Agreements 3: ‘pseudo-banks’ 3: never established

  6. Conservation Banks in the U.S. Conservation Banking Agreements HCPs, MOAs, SHAs Unconfirmed Additional Banks 1993-2004

  7. Profile of 35 Official Conservation Banks • 40,000 acres are protected • 22 Threatened & Endangered Species • 29 of 35 banks are in California 2 in Arizona, 2 in Texas, 1 Saipan, 1 CO • Diversity of bank owners including timber companies, NGO’s, family ranches and municipalities.

  8. Biological Profile of 35 Official Conservation Banks • 94% are based on preserved habitat. • 91% of banks base credits on acres of habitat, remaining based on breeding pairs. • 65% have credit ratio of 1:1, 11% are awarded more credits than acres. • 44% adjacent to other protected habitat. • 66% allow for multiple uses of the property (hiking, hunting, fishing, cattle grazing). Is this working for the endangered species?

  9. Example Conservation Bank Hickory Pass Ranch, Texas • Privately owned family ranch. • Bank established in 2002. • 3003 acres for the golden-cheeked warbler • Over 400 credits sold • Selling at $5000.

  10. Credit Prices from Official Banks Of 22 reporting banks: $3000 for an acre of San Joaquin Kit Fox to $125,000 for a breeding pair of Least Bell’s Vireo.

  11. Motivations for Bank Establishment • Financial reasons: • sell credits for a profit • use credits internally, thereby reducing permitting time & expense. 9% Conservation 91% Financial

  12. Banking is a Business Choice Interested industries: • Electric Utilities • Departments of Transportation • Pulp and Paper • Housing Developers • Cities & Counties Conservation banking agreements are business choices that compete with other business options.

  13. The Rise of Ecological Assets • Wetland: $5000 to $250,000/acre • Species: $3000 to $125,000/acre • Carbon: $5 to $35 per ton CO2e • Water Quality: $45/ton of N into watershed, $2500/ton NOx air emissions

  14. Ecological Assets in the Press • Conservation In Practice, “Making Conservation Profitable” by Gretchen C. Daily and Katherine Ellison. Spring 2003 (Vol 4, No 2) http://www.conbio.org/cip/back_issues.cfm • The Wallstreet Journal, “Timber Giant Cuts Rare Deal on Rare Birds” by Will Pinkston and Joni James. Feb. 2, 2005. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/wsj/access/48796732.html?dids=48796732:48796732&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Feb+2%2C+2000&author=By+Will+Pinkston+and+Joni+James&type=91_1996&desc=Timber+Giant+Cuts+Rare+Deal+On+Rare+Birds • Newsweek, “Investing in Green” by Fred Guterl. 2005. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8017131/ • The Economist, “Rescuing Environmentalism (and the Planet)” April 21, 2005 http://economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=S%27%29%28L%24RQ%3B%23%20%20%22%2C%0A • IUCN, World Conservation Union, “”Biodiversity Offsets: Views, Experience and the Business Case” by R. Bishop, J. Bayon, and K. Kate. November 2004. http://www.conservationfinance.org/Documents/CF_related_papers/Biodiversity_offsets.pdf

  15. Multi-Industry WorkshopMarch 13-14, 2006 Palo Alto, CA

  16. Conservation Banking Citations • Fox & Nino-murcia. August 2005. Status of Species Conservation Banking in the U.S. J. Conservation Biology: V19 n4 996-1007 • Fox, J., G.C. Daily, , B. Thompson, K.M.A. Chan. A. Davis, and A. Nino-Murcia. Forthcoming. Conservation banking. In The Endangered Species Act at thirty: Conserving biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes, ed. J.M. Scott, D.D. Goble, and F.W. Davis. Washington, DC: Island Press • Fox. Species Banking Beyond California. Oct. 2004. Commissioned by Forest Trends - Ecosystem Marketplace.http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/news/article.feat.019.php • Bauer, Fox, & Bean. 2004. Landowners Bank on Conservation. Environmental Law Review: 10717-10722 Jessica Fox, Senior Scientist, EPRI Solutions jfox@eprisolutions.com 510-364-4636.

More Related