Forest Trends is a Washington, DC-based international non-profit organization that was created in 1998 by leaders from conservation organizations, forest products firms, research groups, multilateral development banks, private investment funds, and philanthropic foundations.
For two decades, Forest Trends has pioneered the idea that creating economic value in our forests and natural ecosystems is one of the most powerful incentives for sustaining them.Traditional markets and financial systems fail to fully value all of the ways we benefit from a healthy planet. Forests and other ecosystems clean our air, provide natural protection against floods, and enrich the soil. When we fail to value these benefits, we waste and degrade critical natural assets.Forest Trends’ mission is to work with communities, governments, and businesses to more fully embed conservation into economic activity and prevent the destruction that comes from badly planned, unsustainable resource allocation and development.
Deforestation persists in part because people living in remote and pristine areas lack other income-generating options, which in turn results in massive emissions of carbon into the atmosphere.
Forest Trends develops incentive systems that pay people to manage rather than destroy forests.
Making the case to public and private sector investors in these incentive systems is a critical part of FT's work.
Markets for carbon credits and water are advancing as a result of FT's work.
Our ambition is to demonstrate that preserving natural assets yields much greater long-term benefits than the economic activities that damage these natural assets for short-term profit. We seek to place sustainability at the heart of the economy, thereby creating new growth opportunities and rewarding good stewards such as indigenous communities.
Forest Trends facilitates investments in nature by 1) Piloting next-generation business models, tools, and strategies for a 21st century green economy; 2) Building strong and diverse coalitions between unusual partners; and 3) Delivering transparent and credible data on environmental markets and finance.
President & CEO, Forest Trends Association
Michael Jenkins is the founding President of Forest Trends. For more than a decade he worked as a tropical forester in Haiti, Paraguay and Brazil, where he witnessed first-hand the effects of extreme degradation of natural ecosystems on poor people and that charitable approaches alone were insufficient to solve these problems. Then from 1989-1999 he led the MacArthur Foundation’s conservation and sustainable resource program through a reorientation strategy, taking a whole systems approach that outlined the forest value chain and identified strategies to build financial and community sustainability into the system. In 1998, he founded Forest Trends, focused on increasing the market value of natural ecosystems like tropical forests to prevent their conversion to agricultural use (oil palm soy, cattle, etc.) or other development, thereby mitigating the effects of climate change and benefiting local communities. Michael received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2010. In 2015, Michael received the Social Entrepreneur Award from the Schwab Foundation while Forest Trends received the MacArthur Foundation’s 2015 Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.
In 2010, Michael Jenkins and Carlos Souza each earned Skoll Awards for their innovative work to preserve forests and promote both conservation and sustainable development in South America and around…
