Mark S. Reed, Julia M. McCarthy, Eric A. Jensen, Rosie Everett, Hannah Rudman, Governing high-integrity markets for ecosystem services, Ecosystem Services, Volume 75, 2025, 101760
There is growing global interest in the potential for ecosystem markets to facilitate climate and nature recovery. Yet, poorly designed and operated markets are prone to corporate “greenwashing” and negative consequences for nature and local communities. With the rapid scaling of ecosystem markets around the world, there is a need to systematically analyse ecosystem market governance principles, and identify the practical steps needed to implement these principles at national scales across multiple high-integrity ecosystem markets. The majority of principles published to date are designed to be applied at international scales or within single markets. However, national policy oversight is essential to ensure emerging ecosystem markets deliver natural capital outcomes and wider public benefits appropriate to the jurisdictions in which they operate.
