The Nature Conservancy's Forest Bank: A Market-Based Tool for Protecting Our Working Forestland

摘要

Non-industrial forest lands represent thirty percent of the U. S.'s private forest land. Totaling 118 million acres, these areas constitute the bulk of land harvested for timber and are suffering from rapid turnover and fragmentation-a critical economic concern for the owners and a problem for the environment health of the land. Only five percent of non-industrial forest land owners have a management plan for their woods, and this number is much lower for parcels under one hundred acres. In an effort to become more creative in preserving this forest land and other areas, The Nature Conservancy has begun to develop creative tools for achieving its conservation goals. The Center for Compatible Economic Development (CCED), within the conservancy, was developed to generate economically viable ways of conserving threatened areas. One of the promising concepts developed by CCED is The Forest Bank. The Forest Bank was designed to offer landowners a new option than gives them the financial liquidity they need in the short-term, while managing their resources sustainably over the long-term. It builds on the local focus that the Nature Conservancy has already established. At the same time, the Forest Bank uses the brand identity of the conservancy to grow a business model that can be effective at protecting forest ecosystems throughout the United States and the world.