Word: ecosystems
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...West Indies. Petrochemical plants and the port itself are replacing the mangroves along the west coast, Agard notes, and from the north the city is expanding in the direction of the swamp. The highway on the swamp's eastern side chokes off the fresh water supply, changing the ecosystem of the swamp, which is also bounded by a sewage treatment plant and a garbage dump. That there are still plenty of birds in Caroni is "an illusion," Agard warns. "The local colony is not doing so well," he says, and when their habitat is gone, the colony from the Venezuelan...
...friends in the London financial community are trying to fix what he calls a "market failure." On March 28 the financial group Canopy Capital announced that it would pay the Iwokrama forest reserve in the tiny South American country of Guyana in return for ownership of the forest's ecosystem services and a claim on any profits that might one day be made on them. Canopy Capital wouldn't say how big the deal was, but the firm's managing director Hylton Philipson said it would cover a significant chunk of the reserve's $1.2 million annual budget...
...million hectares of rain forest are destroyed each year, accounting for some 20% of the carbon emissions annually, as burned or cut-down trees release their sequestered carbon into the atmosphere.) But Canopy Capital is the first firm to try to put a market price on all the other ecosystem services provided by a healthy rain forest. Humans have been availing themselves of those services for nothing, like a free utility, but that can't continue. "If you want something you have to pay for it," says Philipson. "If you recognize the services the forests provide to mankind, you have...
...them. Canopy Capital isn't buying land, and it is essentially paying the Iwokrama reserve for a good that it can't really trade. That sounds an awful lot like philanthropy, but Mitchell and Philipson insist this is capitalism. For now, Canopy will pay simply to protect Iwokrama's ecosystem services, but in the future it's wagering that the world will get desperate enough to limit climate change - and deforestation - that it will pay Canopy for its stake. "The fundamental difference here is that we hope to make money out of it," says Philipson. "We need to engage...
...fish stocks have collapsed. Chantecaille, a cosmetics company known for its refined formulations using natural ingredients, has introduced the Protected Paradise compacts for face (left, $90) and eyes to not only educate consumers but also help reverse the impact of overfishing. The compacts' beautiful depictions of the underwater ecosystem illustrate the many layers that are threatened. Five percent of the proceeds from their sale go to the Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, which funds important research...