The Bay Bank: A Marketplace of Opportunity

The Bay Bank will facilitate farm and forest landowner access to multiple ecosystem markets and conservation programs through an easy-to-use online marketplace. The future health of the Bay and its watershed will depend greatly on the actions of private landowners, as collectively they own the majority of the land in the watershed. There are over 900,000 family forest landowners alone in the Bay watershed—a 25% increase over the last 10 years. New and innovative market-based approaches have emerged to offer realistic financial incentives to landowners within the watershed. Currently, there is no efficient way to link landowners with this capital.

The goal of the Bay Bank marketplace is to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed by encouraging private landowners to protect valuable natural systems while adopting land management practices that enhance water quality, mitigate climate change, and improve ecosystem health and function. Landowners will be able to easily and efficiently trade credits for various ecosystem services that are generated by the installation of agreed upon conservation practices.

The Bay Bank will provide one regional, multi-credit, ecosystem service platform and build upon existing national, state, and local ecosystem markets, including carbon sequestration, water quality protection, forest conservation, habitat conservation, and traditional conservation programs.

Project Leader: Eric Sprague, Program Director

The Pinchot Institute is honored to be working with the following organizations in partnership for the Bay Bank program:

The Pinchot Institute would like to thank the following organizations for their support of the Bay Bank program:

Biophilia Foundation
Chesapeake Bay Trust
Keith Campbell Foundation
USDA Forest Service
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation 

For more information about the Bay Bank program:
Bay Bank Fact Sheet
Bay Bank Baseline Analysis