Environmental Markets
Reductions in Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation ("REDD"). Deforestation is the single largest cause of biodiversity loss worldwide and also accounts for approximately 15% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. LTC is supporting the current effort to amend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to allow carbon credits to be granted to countries that demonstrate reductions in their emissions of carbon dioxide due to deforestation. Because the treaty currently provides no incentive for countries to reduce deforestation, we believe that this change could have a very significant impact, both in biodiversity conservation and in mitigating climate change, by providing, for the first time, a significant economic value to standing trees. In addition, we are supporting efforts to ensure that a U.S. cap-and-trade framework for greenhouse gases allows U.S. emitters to satisfy their emission-reduction obligations at least in part by purchasing credits from countries that reduce deforestation. We have funded four organizations in support of these objectives: the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, Environmental Defense Fund, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Woods Hole Research Center. We have also supported several workshops to advance the application of REDD in protected areas. We have secured co-investments to the four organizations we support from five individual donors: Edward Bass, David and Alison Blood, Jesse Fink, Joseph Gleberman, and Roger and Victoria Sant. In addition, our support of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations is in partnership with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Project period: 2006-2011. Total committed to date: $2.7 million by LTC and $6.1 million by our individual co-funders.
A Market-Based Approach to Nutrient Pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. An increasing number of rivers, lakes and coastal waters worldwide suffer from a dramatic loss of biodiversity caused by nutrient pollution from fertilizer, sewage and other sources. A cap-and-trade approach to this problem has long been considered, and has been tried at small scale in certain affected locations. This initiative seeks to implement this approach at large scale for the first time in one high-profile location: the Chesapeake Bay, the world's second-largest estuary, which has been severely affected by nutrient pollution. Our objective is to establish a Congressionally-mandated, multi-sector, enforceable watershed-wide cap on nutrient pollution, in conjunction with a facility for trading in pollution credits to reduce the cost of compliance, accommodate economic growth, and stimulate innovation. We are currently funding the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the World Resources Institute, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund in support of this project. We have also secured co-investments from three individual donors: David and Alison Blood, Joseph Gleberman, and Roger and Victoria Sant. This initiative builds on earlier work by the World Resources Institute, jointly funded by Linden Trust and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Project period: 2007-2011. Total committed to date: $1.4 million by LTC and $0.7 million by our individual co-funders.
Climate-Change Mitigation Beyond the "Cap." In both the global and U.S. policy arenas, cap-and-trade systems have emerged as the leading policy tools for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. However, because these systems largely impose caps only on emissions from fossil fuel burning and other industrial activities, they generally regulate sectors accounting for only 80% or less of total emissions. Further, such caps are generally set at levels that merely reduce, rather than eliminate, emissions from the capped sectors. Yet science indicates that, to avoid dangerous climate change, total emissions must be cut by as much as 80%. Consequently, the caps by themselves will be insufficient, and it will be necessary to also reduce emissions from uncapped sectors such as forestry, agriculture, landfills and others. The goal of this initiative is to ensure that emerging U.S. climate regulation incorporates well-designed mechanisms to reduce uncapped emissions. This may include a combination of offset mechanisms, under which emission reductions by uncapped entities may be bought by capped entities to meet their obligations, and other mechanisms such as allowance set-asides, subsidies and the like. We are currently funding the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University and the World Resources Institute in support of this initiative. Project period: 2008-2010. Total committed to date by LTC: $0.9 million.
Conservation Finance
"Forever Costa Rica." Many countries' natural heritages suffer not only because insufficient areas have been designated as protected from development, but also, even if significant areas are designated as protected, because there are insufficient funds to manage them. Costa Rica has been a world leader in assigning national-park or other protected status to approximately 25% of its territory. This land, totaling 1.3 million hectares (5,000 square miles), is believed to harbor as much as 4% of the world's biodiversity-roughly equivalent to all the species in the United States and Canada combined. However, this system lacks funding structures to ensure that it will be well-managed in perpetuity. In addition, the country's current marine protected areas are inadequate to sustain its collapsing fisheries and protect its extraordinary diversity of marine life. With the Forever Costa Rica project, Costa Rica is now seeking to dramatically expand and improve its marine protection, reform its protected-areas agency, and secure sustainable funding for all its protected areas via increased government expenditures and the creation of an independent $50 million trust fund. If Costa Rica succeeds, it could serve as a model for others as it would be the first developing nation to achieve all of the protected-area goals of the United Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity. LTC is supporting this effort, in partnership with the Costa Rican government, The Nature Conservancy and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, with the support of the Redstone Strategy Group. Project period: 2007-2010. Total committed to date: up to $2.5 million by LTC and in excess of $30 million by others, recruited by LTC and our partners.
Restoration of the Great Plains. The objective of this initiative is to partially restore significant features of the American Great Plains, including the ecological restoration of the bison. In order to accomplish this we are supporting two major projects. The Northern Great Plains program of the World Wildlife Fund seeks to restore and conserve one of the most important grassland ecosystems on Earth. Its flagship project is creating the American Prairie Reserve in eastern Montana, by purchasing title to, or leasing grazing rights on, land totaling approximately 1.3 million hectares (5,000 square miles). When complete this will be the largest area for free-roaming bison in North America, and will restore the entire suite of mammals, birds, and plants to its natural state. The American Prairie Foundation is the WWF partner and land trust that is leading this effort. Additionally, we are supporting the program at the Wildlife Conservation Society for the ecological restoration of the North American bison. Project period: 2006-current. Total committed to date by LTC: $1.1 million.
The Great Bear Rainforest is the world's largest intact landscape of pristine coastal temperate rainforest. It extends along the Pacific coast of British Columbia to the border with Alaska, and is home to lush vegetation and rare animals, including thousand-year-old giant cedars, the spirit bear, eagles and wild salmon. The GBRF is the result of collaboration between the Province of British Columbia, the Canadian government, the private sector, First Nations and a partnership of non-profit organizations. This collective effort established over 2 million hectares (8,000 square miles) of protected forests and used innovative financial planning to devote C$120 million to environmental and economic development projects. The projects are being carried out by First Nations and forest companies operating under ecosystem-based management. LTC's grants were to The Nature Conservancy, which led the structuring and fund-raising for the project. Project period: 2004-2007. Total committed by LTC: $0.5 million.
Tierra del Fuego. Karukinka is the name for a reserve established in Chilean Tierra del Fuego by the Wildlife Conservation Society in 2004, based on a gift of land and financial support from Goldman Sachs. It is an ecologically distinct mixed ecosystem of pristine austral forests, grasslands and massive bogs, and encompassing mountains, valley bottoms, and flatlands, totaling 0.3 million hectares (1,000 square miles). Project period: 2004-2005. Total committed by LTC: $0.5 million.
Institutions
The following are the largest recipients of our institutional support:
World Wildlife Fund. WWF is the largest and is one of the leading conservation organizations in the world. It focuses particularly on large-scale, ecologically unique landscapes.
Resources for the Future. RFF is the leading non-ideological, independent think tank in the United States addressing policy matters regarding the environment and natural resources. Its work on the economics of climate change and cap-and-trade systems has had extraordinary impact.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. LTC is supporting MIT's Earth Systems Initiative, a multi-disciplinary scientific research program addressing the past and future evolution of the planet, and its Energy Initiative, focused on the development of low-carbon energy technologies.
