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.

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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.

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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.