Environment Bank and Mission Markets Launch Online Conservation Credit Platform

The online Conservation credits Exchange will allow conservation groups, farmers and landowners to register their wildlife sites so as to provide ‘conservation credits’; these credits will then be available to developers for purchase to offset their impacts on biodiversity – putting a transferable value on biodiversity loss and establishing private sector funding for the long-term management of conservation sites.

Professor David Hill, Chairman of the Environment Bank (www.environmentbank.com) said  “This is the first step in establishing a definitive market mechanism that will give developers greater certainty from the planning process, reduce delays and really deliver long-term conservation gain.  The purchase of conservation credits will explicitly and transparently demonstrate developers commitment to the environment, and will deliver truly sustainable development – development that directly leads to environmental, as well as economic, recovery.”

“We see this partnership as a significant step in expanding our reach into Europe," says Michael Van Patten, Mission Markets Founder and Chairman. "We are pleased to be working with leading organizations like The Environment Bank to deliver market infrastructure to environmental stakeholders worldwide."

A number of conservation organizations, including Pond Conservation and the Forestry Commission have already registered wildlife sites on the platform - these sites will be eligible to receive long-term funding from the conservation credit system.  Jeremy Biggs, from Pond Conservation, said: “We see this trading platform as an important way of funding landscape scale conservation for the long term.”

The online platform (https://environmentbank.mmearth.com) will be run and hosted by US-based Mission Markets^TM (www.mmearth.com), a firm with best-in-class experience in operating a secure and proven platform for environmental attributes and sustainability opportunities.

David Hill added: “There is mounting international interest in market based approaches from credit buyers, regulators, investors and the environmental community so we believe this platform will provide a major contribution to the huge funding gap in biodiversity and mean that finally ‘nature’ becomes economically visible.”