Delaware farm

Farm in Georgetown, Delaware / Michele Dorsey Walfred / CC BY-SA 2.0

Enabling Chesapeake Bay’s Landowners to Benefit from Carbon and Ecosystem Services Through Aggregation

Avery Siler
Organizations across the country, and across land types, are working to implement aggregation projects to help family forest owners, small farmers, and all those who own smaller parcels of land. These projects serve farmer whose priorities may differ internally and in comparison to commercial operations.
Recovery across the world came before a panel of experts at Yale in January.

The International Society for Tropical Forestry’s 2022 conference at Yale emphasized scale and the importance of COVID-19 recovery efforts for the “Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.”

Financing Tropical Forests: Lessons For Scaling From Yale's Annual Conference

Nadeem Demian
In looking at forest restoration finance in a tropical context, three experts at a Yale-sponsored panel spoke of clearer images from space and more inclusive planning on the ground.
Evergreen Articles
BIg Spring Run development site, with wetlands

(Photo by Sam Feibel/Franklin & Marshall College.) This restored wetland brings life back to a Pennsylvania site that once posed a threat to the Chesapeake Bay. 

Removing Sediment to Restore Wetlands Clears Revenue Paths

Sam Feibel
By removing "legacy sediment" from dam diversions, scientists can expand wetlands and their conservation oomph. In Pennsylvania, a commercial real estate firm learned how this wetland protection can create more developable land - and more profit.
(Photo by Mark Pouley via Creative Commons) The Skagit Valley in a reconsidered light.

Making conservation relevant for a broader community, considering new sources of funding, and protecting landscape: practice can incorporate all of these in a cycle. 

Placing Fairness at the Root: Three Case Studies in Conservation Finance Justice

Katie Michels
Environmental justice in land conservation requires practitioners to slow down and consider the foundations that exclude or enable relationships with and control over land. The following stories highlight three organizations using conservation finance strategies to advance environmental justice outcomes. In each story, participants have asked: why is this so?
Everyone learns in meetings - but what can we learn about how to run meetings?

With the International Land Conservation Network, CFN offers a handbook for handling gatherings to boost impact. 

How to Bring People Together to Unlock Scaled Conservation Impact

Helen Rogers, Leigh Whelpton
Intractable social and environmental problems require collective action. These challenges demand that we step beyond individual mission statements and business models to craft strategies, chart paths forward, and unlock scaled impact—together. A new guide draws on lessons from convenings around the world to make gatherings more enjoyable and effective.
US capitol

A Pioneering Environmental Impact Bond for DC Water (Updated)

Abby Martin, Alec Appelbaum
District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) created a municipal bond that covers the downside risk of using green infrastructure to control stormwater runoff. By offloading risk to investors, the utility drew new financing -and time to get its practices right. Now other cities are following its lead.
Tools for Financing Conservation
Tools on wall

Launching the Conservation Finance Network Toolkit

Vince Tenorio, Spencer Meyer
We are pleased to announce the launch of a new series called the Network Toolkit. This series of articles focuses on individual tools practitioners can use. Our goal is to span the range of comfort levels our readers have – from simple to challenging.
USDA-funded water project in Oklahoma

Conservation Partnerships with Water Utilities

Eve Boyce
This article by Eve Boyce and Marcy Lyman is part of the Network Toolkit, a resource designed for professionals who want to learn or communicate about the industry. In an increasing number of communities across the country, utilities are working with conservation groups to ensure the ecosystem services...
Larch trees in forest

Ballot Measures

Nathalie Woolworth
This article by Nathalie Woolworth and Hazel Wong is part of the Network Toolkit, a resource designed for professionals who want to learn or communicate about the industry. Ballot measures, also known as initiatives or propositions, are instruments of direct democracy that allow voters to directly shape public...
Water holding tank

Using State Revolving Funds for Land Conservation

Maria Martinez
This article by Maria Martinez is part of the Network Toolkit, a resource designed for professionals who want to learn or communicate about the industry. State revolving funds (SRFs) have been used for decades as a source of low-cost financing for a variety of water-infrastructure projects.