The Pacific Northwest is anticipating massive growth in the years ahead, most of which is likely to occur in areas of environmental sensitivity.  

Environmental markets (also referred to as ecosystem service markets) represent a way for our growing communities to offset or mitigate for the unavoidable impacts of growth and development at the lowest reasonable cost.  At the same time, they can provide supplemental income for our farmers and ranchers, improving their economic viability, and providing the funding necessary for them to protect their land and remain in agriculture. 

Our Pacific Northwest Office is engaged in a broad effort to develop and improve the ability for farmers to access a wide variety of existing and emerging Environmental markets.  These include carbon sequestration, water quality trading, wetland mitigation, wildlife habitat mitigation, renewable energy, water transactions, flood mitigation, and more. 

We hope to make as many different kinds of conservation market opportunities as possible available across the broad spectrum of agriculture so that, in the years ahead, selling environmental services becomes a meaningful part of the everyday business of agriculture.

Resources:

Environmental Markets for Washington Farmers and Ranchers (Power Point)

Environmental Markets for Washington Farmers and Ranchers (Video)

How Ecosystem Markets Can Transform Agriculture and Protect the Environment

Conservation Markets Workshop and Listening Session for Agriculture

• Conservation Markets for Agriculture Issue and Discussion Paper
• Appendix A — Models for carbon markets in agriculture
• Appendix B — Models for water quality trading with agriculture
• Appendix C — Models for wetland and aquatic resource mitigation markets and agriculture
• Appendix D — Models for habitat mitigation markets and agriculture
• Appendix E — Additionality
• Summary of Proceedings

Washington Conservation Markets Study

Creating Stronger Incentives for Private Lands Conservation in Washington

Drafts:

How Environmental Markets Can Preserve Agricultural Lands While Helping to Protect the Environment

Maximizing Opportunities for Farmland Protection in Environmental Markets

Models for Land Protection in Conservation Markets

Prospects and Models for Conservation District Roles in Environmental Markets

If you are interested in conservation markets in the Pacific Northwest or any of the documents above, please contact Don Stuart at dstuart@farmland.org or (206)860-4222.