Markets and Finance
Reductions in Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. Deforestation is the single largest cause of biodiversity loss worldwide and also accounts for approximately 20% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. LTC is supporting the current effort to amend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol, to allow for 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. We are funding four organizations in support of this initiative: the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, Environmental Defense, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Woods Hole Research Center. In addition, we have secured co-investments to these organizations from five other donors: Edward Bass, David and Alison Blood, Jesse Fink, Joseph Gleberman, and Roger and Victoria Sant. Project period: 2006-2009. Total committed to date: $2.2 million by LTC and $5.5 million by co-funders.
Market-Based Approaches to Eutrophication. An increasing number of rivers, lakes and coastal waters worldwide suffer from a dramatic loss of biodiversity caused by nutrient pollution from fertilizers, sewage and other sources. Several market-based approaches to this problem have been developed, and some have been tested in certain affected locations. This initiative supports an effort to explore an expanded use of such approaches in one high-profile location: the Chesapeake Bay, the world's second-largest estuary, which has been severely affected by eutrophication. We are currently funding the World Resources Institute and Forest Trends in support of this project, and have been joined equally in this effort by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Project period: 2007-current. Total committed to date by LTC: $0.2 million.
Places
Permanent Financing for Costa Rican Protected Areas. 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. Costa Rica is now seeking to establish funding structures to ensure that these areas, as well as its marine protected areas, will be well-managed in perpetuity. If it succeeds, it could serve as a model for others as it would be the first 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, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Redstone Strategy Group. Project period: 2007-2010. Total committed to date by LTC: up to $2.2 million.
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: 2006-2009. 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 will be 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
World Wildlife Fund. WWF is the largest and is one of the leading conservation organizations in the world.
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.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. LTC is supporting MIT's Earth Systems Initiative, a multi-disciplinary research program addressing the past and future evolution of the planet.
