Practical ideas provided by a case study of the Panama Canal Watershed

Exciting opportunities await the use of market mechanisms for protecting forest ecosystems. However, questions remain on how to best apply these mechanisms. Emerging Markets for Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of the Panama Canal Watershed provides an integrated, interdisciplinary methodological approach for evaluating market opportunities for watershed services, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity protection. Using the Panama Canal Watershed as a case study example, this probing resource addresses the main questions often asked about the various practical aspects of the emerging markets for ecosystem services, including quantifying value, payment structure, and equitable distribution of benefits.

Environmental issues are often at odds with economic and business concerns. Emerging Markets for Ecosystem Services examines practical strategies to integrate diverse aspects into coherent strategies that benefit all. A scientific overview of the science and current knowledge provides a solid foundation to build policy and positive direction using the Panama Canal Watershed as an example. This unique resource sheds useful light on the challenges and provides insightful recommendations for areas struggling with ecosystem issues and the application of market mechanisms. This text is extensively referenced and includes several tables to clearly illustrate data.

Topics in Emerging Markets for Ecosystem Services include:

• an overview of carbon sequestration in natural forests, exotic plantations, native plantations, and agroforestry systems
• policy tools to help reduce barriers to selling carbon credits
• alternatives for increasing demand for land-use-based carbon sequestration
• actions to encourage land managers to protect water quantity and quality
• receiving full value of watershed protection
• approaches to bioprospecti