Habitat conservation
How does this market work?
Am I eligible to sell credits?
How do I generate credits?
What is the market value of my credits?
How much will it cost me to generate and sell credits?
What is required of me in order to generate credits?
Can I see the detailed market requirements?
I'm Interested. Now what do I do?
How does this market work?
Bay Bank provides landowners access to buyers of voluntary habitat credits.
Voluntary habitat markets provide landowners an opportunity to receive payments for protecting and improving wildlife habitat. Many corporations, individuals, foundations, and environmental groups want to support the conservation of certain types of habitat, and would be interested in purchasing voluntary habitat credits from landowners. These buyers may participate in voluntary markets because conservation is a part of their organization’s mission, because they are interested in doing a good thing, or to be a good corporate citizen.
Bay Bank works with these groups to establish a variety of market options for landowners in the Chesapeake region.
Voluntary habitat conservation is different from protecting the habitat species that have been listed as threatened or endangered by state and federal governments. Projects to protect listed species need to meet requirements that are established by fish and wildlife agencies.
Currently, Bay Bank is offering opportunities to buy and sell credits for two habitat types: lands near coldwater streams inhabited by eastern brook trout; and some types of adjoining lands that that are suitable for bog turtles. Bay Bank will continually add new opportunities as they become available.
Am I eligible to sell credits?
The first step in determining your eligibility is to visit LandServer, http://www.landserver.org. LandServer can generate a report that estimates your potential to generate credits for a variety of market areas. Eligibility is based on the physical location of your property in a priority area as defined by conservation organizations and agencies.
How do I generate credits?
You can generate credits by implementing a project that conserves a specific habitat. The amount of credits you generate is based on project location, the quality of the site, and the length of time, or duration, you will be committing to the project. Bay Bank provides a detailed protocol that includes an assessment used to “score” projects based on criteria under these three main factors.
The total possible score for a project is 100, meaning that you are eligible for 100% of the credit value of a high-quality, well-sited, 100-year project. Lower quality, less-ideal locations involving commitments of less than 100 years yield lower credit scores.
The score for duration is actually applied as a direct percentage of 100 years. So, you may have 100 points for quality and location, but if you want to commit to a 20-year contract, you receive 20%, or 20 points. You may not sell credits for improvements/practices that have not yet happened. However, you may later sell credits for additional years, or based on improvements in the quality of the habitat.
To calculate the number of credits for each habitat market, review the relevant protocol and use the following habitat conservation credit calculators:
What is the market value of my credits?
Voluntary habitat markets are relatively new, so there are few benchmarks for what credits may be worth. For some types of habitat buyers may prefer shorter term and/or lower value credits. Others may prefer the highest quality habitat protected for the longest time periods. It is up to you to decide how to participate in the voluntary habitat market, what types of credits you may want to sell. The lowest risk way to participate in the market is to post an “expression of interest” on the Bay Bank Marketplace and wait for interest from a buyer. As the market develops, however, you may find that having credits ready for sale will give you a competitive advantage over others who have only progressed to the expression of interest stage.
How much will it cost me to generate and sell credits?
There are costs associated with generating and selling credits. Bay Bank provides a number of services intended to reduce expenses for designing habitat conservation projects and registering credits. These are available on the Bay Bank website.
You may also choose to pay a consultant or other outside experts to design your project and help prepare a contract to sell credits. Visit the Service Provider Matching tool to find help. Once a project and contract are completed, it must be verified by an independent auditor before credits can be registered. These latter two costs can be deducted from the price of the credits, but other fees related to project design and contract development will in most cases need to be paid prior to the sale of credits.
Project development costs will vary depending on which habitat market they are interested in pursuing. In some cases you can arrange with conservation groups and consultants to bear up-front expenses, which can be recouped once credits are sold.
What is required of me in order to generate credits?
- Each habitat conservation project requires a habitat management plan and a contract to maintain the habitat for a specified period of time (ranging from 20 to 100 years).
- If the project includes a permanent conservation easement, local, state, and federal tax benefits that provide further incentives may be available.
- All credits will be registered with Bay Bank. This allows landowners to document their conservation actions.
- All purchased credits will be monitored for the life of the project, based on a monitoring plan that is included in the project contract.
Can I see the detailed market requirements?
I am interested. Now what do I do?
To get started, simply:
- Run a LandServer report to determine your eligibility
- In your account page, create an “expression of interest” to develop a Bay Bank habitat conservation project. Potential buyers will now be able to find you.
- Contact a service provider to help you verify your potential and develop your project.
- Once you have used Bay Bank’s credit calculators to assess your credit potential, update your Marketplace listing with your number of estimated credits (i.e., “advance credits”). Buyers will now be more interested in your property.
- After Bay Bank approves your project, update your account with the actual number of registered credits you can sell. Buyers will now be more interested in your property.
- Complete transaction with buyer and report results to the Bay Bank registry
