Ricardo Bayon, Managing Director, Ecosystem Marketplace

The Ecosystem Marketplace is a web site and information/analysis service covering the emerging environmental markets for carbon, water, and biodiversity. For nearly a decade he has specialized on issues related to finance, banking, and the environment. He has done work for a number of organizations, including Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, Insight Investments, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, Domini Social Investment, among others. His articles have appeared in publications such as The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, the International Herald Tribune, and others. He was born in Bogota, Colombia, and is currently based in San Francisco.

Making the Priceless Valuable: Forests and Emerging Markets for Ecosystem Services
Over the past five years, new markets have been emerging on ecosystem services; services such as clean air, clean water, and biodiversity provided by forests and other ecosystems. Some of these services (carbon in particular) are already trading $30 billion per year and could become the world's largest commodity markets. This presentation will look at some of these markets (for carbon, water, and biodiversity), will talk about where they are going, and will focus on how these markets may affect forests and forest industries in the future.