Next Assembly will discuss Funds potential roles in ecosystem markets

RedLAC´s next Assembly will be held in the city of Santa Marta, in Colombia, on November. It will celebrate the network’s 10th anniversary and will congregate RedLAC members and a broader audience interested in conservation finance to discuss the trends and potential roles EFs can play in supporting conservation. Ricardo Bayon is one of the invited speakers.

For this year’s meeting, one of the topics the program will cover is the connection of Environmental Funds and ecosystem services markets, including water, biodiversity, carbon. Ricardo Bayon (photo), Partner and co-founder of EKO Asset Management Partners, confirmed his participation to lead this session.

Ricardo helped found and served as the Managing Director of the "Ecosystem Marketplace," a web site and information/analysis service covering these emerging environmental markets. In that capacity he co-authored a number of publications on voluntary carbon markets, including "The State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2007: Picking up Steam" and "Voluntary Carbon Markets: An International Business Guide to What They Are and How They Work"  and his most recent publication is entitled "Conservation and Biodiversity Banking: A Guide to Setting Up and Running Biodiversity Credit Trading System". For over a decade he has specialized on issues related to finance, banking, and the environment. He was born in Bogota, Colombia, and is currently based in San Francisco.

Other topics that will be included in the Assembly’s program are REDD and ways to value economically the biodiversity, theme of the TEEB study. It also will promote a discussion on developing a global mechanism for biodiversity. The host funds this year are Fondo Patrimonio Natural and Fondo para la Acción Ambiental y la Niñez.