Creating a New Forestry Asset Class

David, I am sorry to say that I cannot agree with the arguments presented in your paper and personally do not think that everything can be twisted back to the financial system.? First I do not think that "conservation finance" is the right instrument to "improve" forest management, as I do not think that forest management is the problem. Most problems I could witness are due to exploitation of the resource with a total lack of management, and of course left alone forest ecosystems do not need to be managed. In terms of reforestation, I fully agree that this is required in many regions of the World and not only the tropics. However, land that needs to be reforested will seldom bring any significant financial return even in the long-term. Best would be to find ways to reduce the pressure on the land and let it reforest itself. Finally the intensification of production has been ongoing for at least half a century with the green revolution, and it does not appear to have been sustainable or to have a positive impact on the environment. Your fourth point is interesting but does not include the fact that in sustainability the economic dimension is also important and I think that any model which does not include local economic development as a key factor is unlikely to be successful.? However, I agree with your last point that part of the solution is likely to be in creating positive economic incentives, but this is the real challenge and no easy solution has been found so far. Even certification, has not been able to create any clear market incentive and even the FSC or PEFC programs which started 25 and 20 years ago did not have any significant impact on deforestation globally. One of the main challenges we are going to face in the coming years are economic incentives that will lead to increased deforestation (e.g. Soybean production likely to increase in Brazil, meat production, etc), and I think that one initiative that could help the World moving in the right direction would be to have independent platforms or online markets that would link finance to local conservation or reforestation initiatives led by local communities. Such initiatives already exist but need to be significantly developed to result in any significant impact.

Interesting concept.? Devil is in the details, of course.? All productive lands, not just forestlands, need to improve productivity if we are to meet the needs of a growing population while preserving wild and natural lands.? While "GMO" is seen as a negative term in some circles, properly applied it can provide some of the increased productivity we need.

Amazing! Much needed.

Very exciting!