FSC ForCES Pilot

See on Scoop.it – Nature + Economics

Whoa – FSC wants to certify ecosystem services. They’re looking at how to:

“evaluate and reward the provision of critical ecosystem services, such as biodiversity conservation, watershed protection and carbon storage/sequestration.”

See on www.fsc.org

Prices of Environmental Markets Credits in Maryland

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29388462@N06/

You don’t hear much happening in Maryland in terms of environmental markets, even though the state is located in the over-researched Chesapeake Bay. That had the governor scratching his head, so over the last couple years Maryland’s Governor O’Malley put together an Ecosystem Services Working Group. The group released their final report in October 2011, and it contains a good handful of ecosystem service credit prices. Here are a few of the gems:

• Wetland in-lieu fee prices (set by individual counties) range  from $11,100-$58,000 per acre
• Forest bank prices (under MD’s state Forest Conservation Act, or FCA) range from $2,000-$21,000 per acre; forest in-lieu fee prices (set by individual counties)  range from $0.40-$0.90 per square foot (or $17,424-$39,204/acre)
• A sold-out conservation bank for Delmarva Fox Squirrel had been selling credits for $5,000-$6,500