New Paper: Chesapeake Currency

by Grace Edinger, Senior Manager of the Restoration Economy Center & Kavita Kapur Macleod, Conservation & Environmental Markets Fellow

Chesapeake Currency:
A current snapshot of private investment flowing into watershed conservation and restoration

The objective of this report is to provide a rough estimate of the current state of private capital investment in Chesapeake land conservation, restoration, and mitigation through a survey of relevant stakeholders in Chesapeake Bay states. Additionally, we ask questions that look ahead, with the goal of assessing whether firms and other entities intend to deploy capital in the near future. Adding context to this numerical data, we explore identified barriers and opportunities to private capital investment and share a suite of successful case studies. 

This report builds on and supplements previous research on investments in land protection and restoration in the Chesapeake Bay, including the 2019 report, Marking Milestones and the 2021 report, Private Conservation Finance: The Chesapeake Bay’s Global Lead and How to Expand It, in which the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) conducted a deeper analysis of private capital operating within restoration projects and markets in the Chesapeake Bay. This report aims to draw from and compliment those findings with insight on new capital deployed as well as market barriers and enabling conditions. 

Over the last five years, new policies and guidance have been released relevant to this work, such as Maryland’s Conservation Finance Act passed in 2022. We also share our insights and explain how these new developments can accelerate the use of private capital and financing as a tool for the Chesapeake Bay region.