Wetland Mitigation & Conservation Banking
Habitat - Conservation Banking Credits
The Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 requires that endangered and threatened species and their habitats be preserved. Developers with projects that may impact (take) species listed as endangered or threatened, or their habitat, must submit a habitat conservation plan (HCP) that will minimize and mitigate impacts to these species in order to receive an incidental take permit and proceed with development.
One mitigation option is the purchase of species conservation credits from an approved habitat conservation bank for the species in question. We have created the first electronic platform for endangered species conservation credits. For further information go to: The Ecosystem Marketplaces Species Banking website or go directly to the primer at: Payments for Ecosystem Services Primer
TERRA - Transferable Economic Restricted Rights Agreement
Purchasers of environmental credits will occasionally want to be able to control the economic rights of various credits without having to purchase the credit outright. The TERRA is a form of bi-lateral option agreement between buyer and seller where the seller grants the TERRA purchaser the right to control the economic interests in specific credits for a specific time period and at a specified pre-agreed upon price.
The TERRA seller would recieve as compensation a premium payment for granting this right and keep the premium regardless of whether the TERRA buyer exercises their right. This enables the seller to more effectively help finance banked credits and buyers to control a credits price and the number of credits the buyer can potentially purchase.
Our wetland and conservation credit markets support and features includes:
- Environmental bankers and developers can anonymously list to sell banked wetland and conservation credits
- Development of voluntary markets for credit purchases
- Price discovery, transparency and pricing history when available
- Access to both compliance and voluntary credit purchasers
- Credit sellers can use a TERRA to transfer economic rights to potential buyers
- CSR officers can purchase and retire credits to voluntarily offset corporate environmental impacts
- Bankers can use banked credits for collateral for credit backed debt transaction
- More effective pre-development planning for regulatory permit compliance
- Detailed habitat information and data pages
Wetland Mitigation Banking Credits
The federal Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972 requires the preservation of the chemical, physical and biological integrity of navigable waters. Developers with projects that impact wetlands, streams or other aquatic resources must obtain a Section 404 permit, without which development may not proceed. These developers must demonstrate avoidance and minimization of damages to the extent practicable – beyond which compensatory mitigation to either restore, establish, enhance or preserve wetlands, streams or other aquatic resources is required.
Wetland mitigation bankers establish credit banks in anticipation of future purchases by developers. By establishing large banks in wetland areas, they are able to provide an economically sound alternative to developers having to implement their own wetland compensation programs. Wetlands mitigation banking is approximately a $2 billion industry.
Biodiversity Offset Credits
Similar to habitat banking, biodiversity offset credits can be used to offset residual impacts of development actions that are impossible (or uneconomical) to mitigate directly. There is a growing push to establish an international standard for biodiversity offsets with strong collaboration from the mining sector and various conservation organizations.
Mission Markets Earth will support the emerging biodiversity offset marketplace by following the development of standards and providing an initial marketplace for voluntarily biodiversity offsets in anticipation of the evolution of compliance markets in the future
Any organization is able to buy credits subject to the regulations. A typical purchaser could be a developer seeking to offset their projects’ impacts on biodiversity. Other buyers could be government bodies using the market to achieve conservation outcomes. Ultimately, the market will determine the overall price paid for each credit. The landowner and credit purchaser will be free to negotiate any price.