The aim of the January 2009 conference and subsequent book on Conservation Capital in the Americas is to bring to light for a growing community of practitioners and policy-makers -- many of whom are actively working across international boundaries -- several of the most effective practices and emerging innovations in the field of conservation finance that might be applied in both developed and developing country settings. The Conference hold in Valdivia, Chile brought together senior conservationists and subject experts will present detailed case analyses and participate in moderated dialogues on North and South American initiatives.   Principal organizer James Levitt, is working in conjunction with Dr. Foster, as well as with Antonio Lara from Universidad Austral and Steve Reifenberg from the DRCLAS Regional Office.  The main discussion areas: : strategies to finance large land conservation projects; using emerging ecosystem service markets to finance habitat and wetlands, and watershed protection projects;  using emerging carbon trading markets, including forest carbon credits, to conserve working forest and agricultural landscapes;  using "conservation investment banking" methods, to achieve ambitious conservation goals; using micro, small and medium enterprise financing methods to achieve conservation goals in such contexts as ecotourism and third-party certified forestry and agriculture operations; and using tax and public budgetary policy to finance land conservation initiatives.  The conference included  the active participation of students from North and South America, who will be invited to submit papers on the topics listed above, with several of the best of those papers to be presented at the conference.  In addition, the conference will invite to a dialogue to learn from one another as well as from the professionals at the meeting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWGN-QsIcGg&feature=related

Participating Harvard Faculty: Dr. David Foster, Senior Lecturer on Biology; Member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Director of the Harvard Forest, Director of the Harvard Forest;  Dr. Gowher Rizvi, Director, Institute of Government Innovation; Lecturer in Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government; and Armando Carbonell,  lecturer,  Harvard Graduate School of Design, Chair of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Collaborators: James Levitt, Director of Program on Conservation Innovation at the Harvard Forest;  Marty Mauzy, Executive Director, Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation;  Steve Reifenberg, Program Director, DRCLAS Regional Office in Santiago, Chile; and Dr. Antonio Lara, Dean of the School of Forestry at the Universidad Austral, Chile.

Collaborative Institutions:  Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, DRCLAS Regional Office and the Forestry School at the Universidad Austral.