Eco-utilities

Forests act like giant ‘eco-utilities' providing public ecosystem services at global, regional and local scales.

These services include the sequestration and storage of carbon from the atmosphere, the generation of rainfall, the supply of water, the maintenance of biodiversity, the prevention of erosion, the formation of soil, the fixation of nitrogen, the treatment of waste and pollution and the support of indigenous and other forest communities' livelihoods.     

The difference between the services provided by forest ecosystems and the public services provided by a water utility for example, is the inability to exercise private property rights.

Water utilities own the water distribution network and have the power to turn off the taps if customers don't pay their bills. This enables water utilities to put a price on water supply.

In contrast, Forest nations own their forests but cannot turn off the rainfall that they generate. Instead, the only way these nations can monetise the value of their forests is by cutting them down, with disastrous global and regional consequences for the supply of ecosystem services.

Canopy Capital's objective is to help change this perverse economic incentive by creating an investment model where forests are worth more alive than dead and by developing a framework which brings together all ecosystem service beneficiaries.