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While more public funding sources have emerged recently for conservation finance, particularly around working farms, landowners with means and motivation remain a staple of the private conservation process. These landowners are largely white, and their properties most often located in rural and suburban areas. The distribution of conserved land and...

Huge corporations have promised to zero out their carbon impact, so prices for natural carbon sinks should see upward pressure starting now. Three forest carbon finance specialists thrash out three paths to success, navigating standards and science and the occasional drag that comes with creating a marketplace in the midst...

In Ghana, fertile forests have attracted poaching and razing. Now they're attracting a coalition that aims to restore forests and empower female farmers. Leaders aim for the restoration of 200,000 hectares of off-reserve savannah forests/woodlands by placing them under collaborative sustainable natural resource management mechanisms known as Community Resource Management...

Cash flows and rivers flow — The Washington Farmland Trust, which crafted the Conservation Note, provided this image.

How does a farmer with no desire to keep growing crops become a catalyst for financial value and land preservation? The Washington Farmland Trust worked with a farmer at the end of his career to craft a financial package that would keep his land from developers, sustain ecosystem services, and...

Three new case studies from preservation advocates Wildland and Woodlands show how collaborations to preserve land in New England pay off in employment, tax revenue, and housing investment. In each process, local leaders with heft in capital, policy and community trust worked together to craft an outdoor-focused strategy that encouraged...

So this panther walks into a bank... — (Courtesy Mark Conlin/Alamy, via the NRDC website.)

*It should be noted that with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, many conservation banks along with other conservation projects are facing uncertain futures because the pandemic has put a stress on current and future funding. For many years, conservationists, landowners, and developers have met at crossroads when handling cases of endangered...

Regions on the rise — The NRCS says it can help foster wide and deep conservation impacts by giving partners more latitude. (Photo courtesy NRCS.)

Kari Cohen, Branch Chief at USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), oversees regional partnerships. Kari explained the Alternative Funding Arrangement (AFA) provision of the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which will invest up to $50 million in fiscal year 2020. The first cohort of up to 15 projects this fall will...

What makes efforts to preserve land harmonize with efforts to promote commerce? In this article, we review several examples. Entrepreneurs learn to bolster terrain for hikers (who drink beer), historically sensitive consumers, and fellow merchants. These examples show how creative approaches to promoting conservation and community-based development can yield ongoing...

Easements unlock value for landowners and preserve land for everyone else. With challenges to our ecosystem and economy coming faster and from more directions, conservation leaders need tools that apply more quickly or in quirkier situations. This toolkit looks over a range of techniques that extend conservation to situations where...

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.

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...

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...

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.

How Regenerative Agriculture Can Grow

This series, by the Yale Center for Business and the Environment's Regenerative Agriculture Initiative team, looks at how changes in training, investing, insuring and marketing the work of regenerative farmers can bring about broad benefits.

Sustaining land, water, and habitat means showing how society can outgrow fossil energy. Visit our partners at the Clean Energy Finance Forum to learn how states, startups and serious investors are building a clean energy economy. cleanenergyfinanceforum.com

Voices of is a podcast series that interviews conservation finance practitioners to explore career paths and opportunities for professional development in the field.

Conservation Finance Network

Leveraging Conservation Finance to Advance Equity and Justice, Part One: New Goals

A Higher Price or the Highest Price? Inside the Forest Carbon Market

Can a Partnership Bury Carbon and Elevate Equity in Ghana?

Latest Articles

Good Crops, Good Credit: How a Northwest Land Trust Sustains Farmland With Capital

Successes Around New England Show How Open Space Opens Economic Pathways Across the USA

Species and Habitat Conservation Banking

Alternative Funding Arrangement: Unlocking Partnerships With Private Capital at USDA NRCS

Aligning Conservation and Community Development for Increased Impact in Sentinel Landscapes—and Beyond

Beyond Easements: Broader Approaches for Greater Conservation Outcomes

Tools for Financing Conservation

Launching the Conservation Finance Network Toolkit

Conservation Partnerships with Water Utilities

Ballot Measures

Using State Revolving Funds for Land Conservation

Earning Their Stripes? A Tiger Debuts in Thailand, Lifting Conservationists' Spirits

Maine's Biggest City Launches Un-Remote Learning Commitment for Conservation

Star Asset Managers Raise Their Hands for Biodiversity

Tourism Was Backstopping Conservation. Then Came Coronavirus.

Event Hub Leverages Water-Quality Credits on Oyster Shells