Enter the contest    Participa en el concurso    Participe do concurso    Thể lệ cuộc thi 

Join us in celebrating the beauty and importance of nature through your lens. This contest is a chance to showcase your talent, share your unique perspective, and help us promote conservation efforts. Whether you’re a seasoned photographer or just starting out, we invite you to capture moments that highlight the people and places that inspire you to restore, protect, and sustainably live with nature. 

Submit your high-resolution photos, tell us your story, and be part of a global movement to celebrate and protect the planet that we call home. Exciting prizes await, and your work could be featured in Forest Trends’ publications and promotions. Your photos will help us tell the stories of why conservation matters! 

GUIDELINES & ELIGIBILITY 

• This contest is open to photographers worldwide of all ages, professional and amateur 
• We are accepting high-resolution images in JPEG or PNG format, maximum file size 20MB 
• Photos must be original work, not digitally manipulated, and must not infringe upon any copyrights. Photos will be judged on their originality and their overall quality  
• Please do not submit photos of children.

PRIZES* 

• Grand Prize: $300 cash prize and feature in Forest Trends’ annual Impact Report 

• 2nd Place: $200 cash prize and feature in digital publication(s) 

• 3rd Place: $100 cash prize and recognition on social media. 

• Category Prizes: $100 cash prize for each of the three categories below and feature either on the cover of a flagship Forest Trends report sometime in the next calendar year, or another prominent feature on the website and/or in print. 

• Honorable Mentions: Recognition certificates and inclusion in online gallery. 

*Please note that you are selected for a cash prize, you must have a bank account that is capable of receiving international wires. 

PHOTO CATEGORIES 

• Communities and Nature: Images from sustainable, forest-based livelihoods, community-based conservation efforts, and/or traditional daily life in forest communities. Other ecosystems welcome. 

• Natural Goods: Share images of sustainable goods, marketplaces, and the people who enjoy them. Examples include native plants, sustainable crops, and clean drinking water. 

• Biodiversity and Landscapes: Images of any ecosystem/landscape and/or the biodiversity that calls it home (plants, fungi, animals, including insects). 

Enter the contest

Español

Únete a nosotros para celebrar la belleza y la importancia de la naturaleza a través de tu lente. Este concurso es una oportunidad para mostrar tu talento, compartir tu perspectiva única y ayudarnos a promover los esfuerzos de conservación. Si eres un fotógrafo experimentado o si acabas de empezar, te invitamos a capturar momentos que destaquen a las personas y los lugares que te inspiran para restaurar, proteger y convivir de forma sostenible con la naturaleza.

Envía tus fotos en alta resolución, cuéntanos tu historia y forma parte de un movimiento mundial para celebrar y proteger el planeta que llamamos hogar. Te esperan premios emocionantes, y tu trabajo podría aparecer en las publicaciones y promociones de Forest Trends. Tus fotos nos ayudarán a contar por qué la conservación es importante.

The post Introducing Forest Trends’ 2025 Photo Contest: “Why Conserve? Celebrating Nature and Inspiring Action”! appeared first on Forest Trends.

This one-hour webinar dove into the global state of investments in nature for water, pinpointing opportunities for future growth, and formally launched our upcoming report, Doubling Down on Nature: The State of Investment in Nature-based Solutions for Water Security, 2025. 

Speakers

• Brooke Atwell, Associate Director, Resilient Watersheds, The Nature Conservancy
• Max Arturo Carbajal Navarro, Director of Policy and Regulation for Construction and Sanitation, Ministerio de Vivienda, Construcción y Saneamiento
• Klaas De Groot, Global Program on NbS for Climate Resilience Co-lead in the Water Department, The World Bank
• Gena Gammie, Director, Global Water Initiative, Forest Trends Association
• Mia Smith, Program Manager, Global Water Initiative, Forest Trends Association
• Leonardo Manus, Executive Director of Water and Sanitation, City of Cape Town

Watch the Webinar Report Launch Recording

The post Webinar: State of Investment in Nature-based Solutions for Water Security appeared first on Forest Trends.

The global demand, and associated price, for high-quality carbon removal credits seems to be rising, yet the past two years has seen the price of many REDD+ credits remain well below $10 per ton. While these low prices may be enough to dissuade tree clearance in some places, in others it will likely remain more lucrative to pursue other activities, such as clearing forests for agricultural commodities. In fact, analysis by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has suggested that a price between US$30-50 per tonne for nature-based credits is required to incentivize widespread, large-scale action. Of course, any increase in the price per tonne is dependent upon buyer confidence in the quality of credits, as well as having a clear business case, which includes consideration of their Scope 3 emissions.

What do recent developments in the REDD+ space – including the major breakthrough for Article 6 at COP29 and the approval by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) of three REDD+ crediting methodologies under its Core Carbon Principles (CCP) – mean for REDD+ carbon credit pricing?

This one-hour webinar featured a introduction to the context surrounding REDD+ pricing and a presentation of Ecosystem Marketplace data on the topic, followed by a moderated discussion between a distinguished panel of experts.

Speakers

• Lucy Almond, Executive Director, Nature4Climate
• Alex Procton, Senior Manager for Data Solutions and Insights, Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace
• Nathan Truitt, Executive Vice President, AFF
• Gabriel Labbate, Head, Climate Mitigation Unit, UNEP
• Roselyn Fosuah Adjei, Director, Climate Change at Ghana’s Forestry Commission
• Theresia Ott, Rio Tinto

Download Ecosystem Marketplace’s presentation here.

Download the chat transcript here.

The post Webinar: The True Cost of REDD+ Carbon Credits: Aligning Prices with High-Integrity Standards appeared first on Forest Trends.

COP 16 will be the first Biodiversity COP since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP 15 in December 2022 in Montreal, Canada.

COP 16 will bring together world leaders from more than 190 countries, including heads of state, authorities, and experts, to make concrete decisions that will determine the future of our planet. The accelerated loss of species and natural resources obliges us to act with the objective of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. Governments will be tasked with reviewing the state of implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Parties to the Convention are expected to show the alignment of their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) with the Framework. COP 16 will further develop the monitoring framework and advance resource mobilization for the Global Biodiversity Framework. Among other tasks, COP 16 is also due to finalize and operationalize the multilateral mechanism on the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources. Learn more about COP 16 on their website.

Members from our Communities and Territorial Governance Initiative and the Natural Infrastructure for Water Security (NIWS) Project are attending the COP to host and participate in events.

Forest Trends Sessions at COP 16

Advances and opportunities in the design and promotion of financial mechanisms for the conservation of biodiversity and its ecosystem services in Peru (event en español)

Thursday, October 24

4:30 PM

Peru Pavilion

Forest Trends, with local partners Minam, Sernanp, Sedapar, and Profonanpe, will show the importance of the MERESE tool (Mechanism for the Remuneration of Ecosystem Services) and its application in an innovative model for the conservation and sustainable management of water resources and biodiversity. 

Featuring: Fernando León Morales, Deputy Director of Investments, NIWS 

Stewards of Biodiversity to be Recognized and Rewarded

Thursday, October 31

12:00 – 1:00 PM

Nature Positive Pavilion at CBD COP16 BLUE ZONE

Biodiversity Stewardship Units introduce a new methodology, co-created by the Yawanawá people, to reward their contributions and those of other Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to delivering measurable biodiversity outcomes. Join this interactive session hosted by Yawanawá leaders who will share their experience in co-creating a new, market-based mechanism to reward their contribution to the conservation of biodiversity in their home territory (over 180,000 hectares). Their securing of intellectual property rights to the methodology, the activities carried out to date and what is still to come will be presented. Their co-creators will be on hand to answer questions on technical aspects, from eligibility to data collection, unit calculation, external review, market strategy and more. Constructive dialogue around the challenges and opportunities presented by this innovative new approach will be welcomed.

LEARN MORE

The post 16th Conference of Parties on Biological Diversity appeared first on Forest Trends.

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Location: Ethic HQ

Conveners: Forest Trends, Encourage Capital, and Ethic

​The last three decades have been a time of tremendous breakthroughs in harnessing the power of the global economy to bring value to nature. We’ve seen a proliferation of market-based instruments like carbon markets, sustainability certifications (think FSC-certified timber and Rainforest Alliance coffee), biodiversity markets, investments in “natural infrastructure,” stormwater credit trading, and more, come into play.

​But these instruments operate in silos and often struggle to scale. There’s little cross fertilization, low transparency, and not enough sharing of experience across markets or geographies. No one market is a silver bullet for bringing value to nature; we need a whole portfolio of solutions. Otherwise, these tools will never deliver finance for a green transition as initially hoped.

​So this year at Climate Week, we’re bringing together experts from across carbon markets, water markets, biodiversity markets, ESG policy, government, tech, and finance to help drive that vision. We’ll preview new tools and data that can help us build a mental map of the entire universe of markets and market-like tools that put the power of the economy to work for the planet. We’ll take stock of where we currently stand and where we need to go to bring nature into the economic system.

Panelists:

David Sternlicht – Ethic

​Ricardo Bayon – Encourage Capital

​David Antonioli – Transition Finance

​Mariana Sarmiento – Terrasos

​Tim Male – Environmental Policy Innovation Center

​Moderator:

Genevieve Bennett – Forest Trends

The post New York Climate Week: Making the Priceless Valuable appeared first on Forest Trends.

Climate Week NYC is the largest annual climate event of its kind, bringing together over 600 events and activities across the City of New York – in person, hybrid and online. Each year, business leaders, political change makers, local decision takers and civil society representatives of all ages and backgrounds, from all over the world, gather to drive the transition, speed up progress, and champion change that is already happening.

This year, Climate Week NYC is being held from September 22-29, 2024. The event takes place every year in partnership with the United Nations General Assembly and is run in coordination with the United Nations and the City of New York. Learn more about Climate Week events here.

Forest Trends Sessions at Climate Week NYC

Private Film Screening: “We Are Guardians”

Monday, September 23

5:00 – 8:30 PM EST

Angelika Film Center & Cafe

REGISTER

We Are Guardians follows Indigenous activists in Brazil as they risk their lives to protect their ancestral forests. This powerful, award-winning documentary offers a raw and intimate look at those closest to the Amazon, revealing a crisis that impacts us all.

Join us after the film for a conversation with Beto Borges, Director of the Communities and Territorial Governance Initiative at Forest Trends; Puyr Tembé, First Secretary of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Pará; and the film’s directors, Edivan Guajajara and Chelsea Greene.

Featuring: Beto Borges, Director, Communities & Territorial Governance Initiative

New forest carbon standards and monitoring technologies – solutions out of the VCM crisis?

Tuesday, September 24

7:30 – 9:30 AM EST

The Westin New York at Times Square

REGISTER

Earth Observation- and AI-supported carbon monitoring technologies can enhance the quality of the carbon data that underpin the development, financing and monitoring of forest carbon projects. ​This breakfast session will discuss how new VCM standards, project developers and buyers of carbon credits are using new monitoring technologies to unlock investment at scale for trustworthy forest conservation and restoration. 

Financing the Green Transition: A Deep Dive into Climate Finance

Wednesday, September 25

8:00 – 11:00 AM EST

Deloitte Hub

This session will navigate the complex world of climate finance and its numerous forms, mechanisms, and impacts. Through panel discussions, we’ll explore the current barriers to financing the green transition, the multitude of financing mechanisms available, and the accessibility and impact of these mechanisms across various sectors.

Featuring: Gena Gammie, Director, Global Water Initiative; and Art Blundell, Sr. Advisor on Forest Finance & Governance

Accelerating Climate Action: Delivering High Integrity Carbon Markets

Wednesday, September 25

9:00 AM – 6:30 PM EST

The Voluntary Carbon Market is critical to meeting our global climate goals. This is the moment to harness the opportunity and deliver real impact. Hear from high-level business leaders, scientists, economists, NGOs and government representatives from across the world. The dynamic event will include insights from those pledging to step up, debates on what’s getting in the way, and agreements on how to make progress quickly.

Nature: Making the Priceless Valuable 

Wednesday, September 25

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM EST

Ethic HQ

No one market is a silver bullet for bringing value to nature; we need a whole portfolio of solutions. Otherwise, these tools will never deliver finance for a green transition as initially hoped.

​So this year at Climate Week, we’re bringing together experts from across carbon markets, water markets, biodiversity markets, ESG policy, government, tech, and finance to help drive that vision. We’ll preview new tools and data that can help us build a mental map of the entire universe of markets and market-like tools that put the power of the economy to work for the planet. We’ll take stock of where we currently stand and where we need to go to bring nature into the economic system.

Featuring: Genevieve Bennett, Director, Communications & Strategic Outreach

No smallholders left behind: Empowering livelihoods & action through climate finance 

Thursday, September 26

8:00 – 9:30 AM

Metlife Building

The CASH Coalition and invited guests will host a discussion on empowering smallholder livelihoods through climate action.

This breakfast meeting will focus on identifying incentives that enable smallholder agroforestry projects to scale through access to carbon markets. CASH is developing a portfolio of smallholder-based carbon projects and has developed a sophisticated financial model to understand key variables and tipping points that impact the viability of smallholder agroforestry projects.

Featuring: Michael Jenkins, Founding President & CEO

Nature: Making the Priceless Valuable – Round 2!

Thursday, September 26

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

287 Park Ave S

Featuring: Genevieve Bennett, Director, Communications & Strategic Outreach

Nature: Making the Priceless Valuable – Round 3!

Friday, September 27

9:00 – 10:30 AM

287 Park Ave S

Featuring: Genevieve Bennett, Director, Communications & Strategic Outreach

The post New York Climate Week: Full List of Forest Trends Events appeared first on Forest Trends.

As the world’s largest event on water, the World Water Forum provides a unique platform where the water community and key decision makers can collaborate and make long-term progress on global water challenges. The Forum brings together participants from all levels and areas, including politics, multilateral institutions, academia, civil society and the private sector, among others. Learn more about the Forum here.

Forest Trends will co-host side events at the Nature Hub. Sessions will cover a range of topics on nature’s role in driving global water security, including nature-based solutions for water security, freshwater biodiversity, and regenerative agriculture. Learn more about the Nature Hub here.

Forest Trends Sessions at the World Water Forum

Climate resilient infrastructure: blending green and grey, traditional and non-traditional approaches to meet water security needs in a climate changed world

Tuesday, May 21st

8:30 – 10:00 am (GMT +8)

BNDCCI, Mezzanine Floor, Kintamani 2

There are a growing number of examples around the world where a combination of green and grey infrastructure is increasing resilience and water security for the short and long term. This session will look at some of the latest examples of blended & mixed approaches to green & grey infrastructure and traditional & non-traditional approaches to climate resilience, and it will look to understand how these can be replicated and improved.

Nature-based solutions / ecosystem protection and restoration to improve water supply

Tuesday, May 21st

10:20 – 11:50 am (GMT +8)

BICC, 1st Floor, Nusantara 3

This session will focus on showcasing the best practices and challenges for the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) for sustainable water supply. Specifically, it will focus on effective deployment of NBS and healthy water-related ecosystems; cross-sectoral/cross-governmental approaches that raise awareness, enhance technical capacity, and improve the policy and regulatory environment for NBS; and basin-level approaches that integrate ecosystem protection and restoration into water supply and demand planning.

Ensuring Gender Equality and Social Inclusion to Achieve Climate Resilient WASH for All

Thursday, May 23rd

10:20 – 11:50 am (GMT +8)

BNDCC, 1st Floor, Singaraja 2

Critical to achieving climate resilient WASH for all is ensuring diverse voices are not only part of, but central to, decision-making for climate resilient solutions at institutional, policy and community levels. This session provides evidence-based examples being used in the water and WASH sectors for amplifying the voices of the marginalized, who are at the frontline of climate change and therefore have important knowledge and solutions to contribute to decision-making processes to ensure climate resilient WASH for all is a reality, not just rhetoric.

See the full World Water Forum schedule here.

Forest Trends Sessions at the Nature Hub

Sessions and social events will be held daily from 09:30 – 19:00. More detailed schedule coming soon. See the Nature Hub webpage here.

Survey Demonstration for the State of Investment in Nature-based Solutions for Water Security 

Tuesday, May 21

13:30 – 17:00 pm

Nature Hub Demonstration Booth

Come discuss Forest Trends’ State of Investment in Nature-based Solutions for Water Security 2024 report with its authors and see a demonstration of the data collection survey. By submitting data, you will contribute to a new global baseline on investment in nature-based solutions for water security!

Charting the Path for Scaled Investment in Natural Infrastructure for Water Security in Peru

Wednesday, May 22

9:30 – 10:30 am

Nature Hub, BNDCC2 | PC01, PC02, PC06 (room TBC)

Speaker: Cesarina Quintana
Deputy Director, Governance, Natural Infrastructure for Water Security Project, Forest Trends

Te Mana o te Awa o Waikato: Restoring and Protecting the Health and Wellbeing of the Waikato River, Aotearoa, New Zealand

Friday, May 24

11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Nature Hub, BNDCC2 | PC01, PC02, PC06 (room TBC)

The post World Water Forum appeared first on Forest Trends.

Location: IETA Pavilion, Business Hub, Blue Zone

Convenors: Peoples Forests Partnership

In this panel, indigenous peoples and local communities and carbon standards organizations will come together to reflect on what progress has been made on getting standards to work for the people and how to tackle the challenges that still lie ahead to unpack a workable road towards fully nested projects.

Speakers:

• Francesca Arara, Government of Acre
• Gustavo Sanchez, AMPB
• Anna Lehmann, Peoples Forests Partnership
• Julia Sunderland, Equitable Earth
• Christy Magerkurth, ART/TREEs
• Colin Moore, WCS 

The post COP28: Getting the Carbon Market Right for Communities appeared first on Forest Trends.

Location: SE Room 5, Blue Zone

Convenors: Peoples Forests Partnership, Equitable Earth Coalition

Carbon markets can provide much-needed finance for protecting forests, scaling up agroforestry, and benefiting the local communities. Indigenous Peoples and local community organizations advocate for fair and transparent benefit sharing and effective and inclusive participation in carbon projects, where revenues and benefits flow directly to indigenous peoples and communities with the power and capacity to use these revenues for their development objectives and priorities.

Speakers:

• Leticia Labre, Founding Member, Peoples Forests Partnership
• Dr. Mary Molokwu-Odozi, Country Manager, Liberia, Fauna & Flora
• Levi Sucre, General Director, Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests
• Dominic T. Johns, REDD+ Convener, Liberia REDD+ Technical Working Group
• Dr. Alan Channer, Initiatives of Change International
• Beto Borges, Director, Communities and Territorial Governance Initiative, Forest Trends 

The post COP28: Voices of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities: Faces of the High Integrity Carbon Market appeared first on Forest Trends.

REGISTER

Location: Nature Positive Pavilion, Blue Zone

Convenor: Equitable Earth Coalition

Leaders of Indigenous Peoples and Global South governments join together at this panel discussion to discuss how to end deforestation by 2030 through a new and revolutionary shift in the voluntary carbon market. This panel’s speakers will discuss community-led forest carbon projects and other initiatives they are engaged in to deliver equitable results for climate action and biodiversity protection that drive economic development for their people.

Speakers:

• Sonia Guajajara, Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Brazil
• Eve Bazaiba, Minister for the Environment, Democratic Republic of Congo
• Gustavo Sánchez, Mexican Network of Forest Peoples Organizations
• Puyr Tembé, Federation of Indigenous Peoples of Pará
• Beto Borges, Forest Trends / Equitable Earth IPLC Advisory Group

The post COP28: A Revolutionary Shift for the Voluntary Carbon Market: Leadership from Forest Communities and Global South Countries appeared first on Forest Trends.