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About The Katoomba Group

Our Mission

Our History

Historic Attendees

Past Sponsors

The Katoomba Group addresses key challenges to developing markets and payments for ecosystem services, from enabling legislation through establishment of new market institutions, strategies of pricing and marketing, and performance monitoring. The Group works through strategic partnerships for analysis, capacity-building, information-sharing, investment, market services, and policy advocacy. 

In 1999, Forest Trends launched the Katoomba Group, an international working group dedicated to advancing markets and payments for ecosystem services including watershed protection, biodiversity habitat, and carbon sequestration. The Group is comprised of leading experts from forest and energy industries, research institutions, the financial world, environmental NGOs, and local communities. It serves as a source of ideas for and strategic information about ecosystem service markets and transactions. The Group has been known for its international convenings, which have provided a forum for exchanging ideas, influencing policy-makers, and catalyzing new initiatives.

It has held 28 major global conferences, published and contributed to a number of publications, and supported the development of a range of new PES schemes including the BioCarbon Fund and the Mexican PES Fund. The Katoomba Group has also advised national policy discussions on financial incentives for conservation in numerous countries including China, Brazil, India, and Colombia.  In 2005, The Katoomba Group launched Ecosystem Marketplace, the world’s first global market information service for ecosystem services. The Group also launched the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme, which resulted in the first global biodiversity offsets standard in 2012.

International Katoomba Group gatherings have become key events for sharing information, ideas, and developing the implementation of Payments for Environmental Services (PES). As a combination of networking, information sharing, advocacy, and outreach, many participants feel that the convenings - starting in 1999 - were exactly what was needed given the state of development of PES in the early years of the Katoomba Group. At a 2003 meeting in Switzerland, the Katoomba Group agreed to address both the lack of easy access to information as well as specific regional issues emerging around the evolution of these markets. These two decisions led to the development of Ecosystem Marketplace, as well as the beginning of work within Tropical America and East and Southern Africa. In 2006, the Katoomba Group began to address the challenge of building capacity for institutionalizing PES in these critical regions by focusing its meetings and strategic planning regionally. Work in China and in North America launched in 2008.

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  • Dr. Omari Boamah, Deputy Minister of Environment, Technology and Science, Ghana

  • Governor Eduardo Braga, State of Amazonas, Brazil

  • Dr. Batilda Salha Burian, Minister of State, Tanzania

  • Governor Ana Júlia Carepa, State of Pará, Brazil

  • Maria Claudia Garcia Davila, Ministry of Environment, Colombia

  • John Holdren, Science Advisor to President Obama

  • Alex Kaaya, CEO, Dar es Salaam Water and Sewage Company

  • Yolanda Kakabadse, President, WWF International

  • John Kerry, US Secretary of State

  • Ms. Rejoice T. Mabudafhasi, Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Government of South Africa

  • Amber Mace, Assistant Secretary for Coastal Matters, California Natural Resources Agency

  • Governor Blairo Maggi, State of Mato Grosso, Brazil

  • Minoru Makihara, Chairman, Mitsubishi Corporation

  • Steve McCormick, President, Moore Foundation

  • Carlos Minc, Minister of Environment, Brazil

  • Richard H. Murray, Chief Claims Strategist, Swiss Re 

  • Nguyen Thien Nhan, Deputy Prime Minister, Vietnam

  • Major General Kahinda Otafiire, Minister of Water, Lands and Environment, Uganda

  • Virginia Palmer, Deputy Mission Chief, USAID Vietnam

  • Shani ole Petenya, Maasai tribal leader

  • Cao Duc Phat, Minister, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam

  • Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Minister of Environment, Peru

  • Ståle Torstein Risa, Ambassador to Vietnam and Laos, Embassy of Norway

  • Cristián Samper, Secretary, Smithsonian Institution

  • Roger Sant, Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus, The AES Corporation

  • Kathy Sierra, Vice President, Sustainable Development, World Bank

  • Marina Silva, Minister of Environment, Brazil

  • Ron Sims, King County Executive, US

  • Almir Suruí, Chief of the Paiter Suruí People, Brazil

  • Zhao Gen Wu, Deputy Secretary General, Beijing Municipal Government

  • Wang Xiaoping, Secretary General, Beijing Forestry Society

  • Tashka Yawanawá, Chief of the Yawanawá people, Brazil

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An unusual mix of government, indigenous and local communities, finance, business, and civil society representatives:

  • MacArthur Foundation

  • The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

  • The United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

  • Swiss Re

  • The World Bank

  • The Nature Conservancy

  • Columbia Land Trust

  • Mitshubishi Climate

  • Trust Defenders of Wildlife

  • Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • Center for International Forestry Research

  • United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

  • The Global Environment Facility (GEF)

  • Ford Foundation

  • Natural Resources Conservation Service

  • Parametrix

  • Department for International Development (DFID)

  • Zurich Capital Markets

  • The Global Environment Fund

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