Returns for Ranchers and Society
A sustainable business model
Conservation markets recognize the value healthy ecosystems provide to society while providing landowners with incentives for sound land management decisions that serve to maintain environmental quality or minimize environmental degradation.
Common sustainability objectives are efficiently achieved through conservation markets where buyers do not have to be involved at the operational farm level and ranchers do not have to give up their right to manage the environment and the farm where they live and work. Success will be a legacy of conservation in grasslands where ranchers can continue to regenerate and preserve through stewardship management of these precious ecosystems for generations to come.
How the Grasslands Conservation Exchange Works
Grasslands ecosystem services are produced by ranchers and farmers, calculated in a Grassland Index, verified, stored in a registry and then sold to buyers through an exchange.
01.
Grassland Sellers
Ranchers and farmers who supply grasslands ecosystem service benefits to potential buyers
02.
Grassland Index
Measures ecosystem services through indicators, then combines them in a weighted combination to provide an overall value of grassland ecosystem health
03.
Verification
The process of authenticating the ecosystem services indicators and associated metrics
04.
Registry
The system that issues, tracks, transfers and retires grassland units in the exchange.
05.
Buyers
Investors in the grasslands conservation exchange who pay for and benefit from grasslands ecosystem services.
Learn about what is traded in the exchange.
key principles
The following conditions are essential for an efficient grasslands conservation market and support an optimal approach to achieving environmental, economic, and social objectives through the exchange.
Click each principle title to discover more
Voluntary Marketplace
Participation in a grasslands conservation market is voluntary for buyers and sellers.
Cost Effective
Implementation and participation in the market is cost effective, using existing resources, knowledge, and tools where possible. Transaction costs are as low as possible.
Efficient Approach
The grasslands conservation exchange offers buyers an efficient way to achieve their sustainability objectives without the operational burden and added cost of being involved in the implementation of projects at the ranch or farm level.
Trusted
The knowledge and tools used in the grasslands conservation exchange are science-based,credible and transparent.
Outcome Focused
The knowledge and tools used in the grasslands conservation exchange are science-based,credible and transparent.
Adaptable
The grasslands conservation exchange can be continuously improved upon as science and technology has become well understood.
Easy to Use
User tools and communication materials are easily understood, intuitive and practical.
Innovative
The grasslands conservation exchange is a new approach that explores unique opportunities to pay producers for managing, restoring and protecting grasslands for the ecosystem services they provide.
Providing land owners with incentives
Buyers and sellers trade economically, environmentally and socially relevant grasslands
ecosystem services