C2SI - Conservation & Climate Security International

Scientific Analysis, Risk Assessments, and Developing Solutions

To sustainably and efficiently manage natural resources and protect the environment, countries and governments will need the tools to do so. C2Si will assist in creating enhanced decision support tools and models for government/countries, donors and their target groups on regional, national and local levels, to address environmental and natural resource needs, both present and future, and assess risks from global climate disruptions. These activities include:

Scientific Assessments.

Many countries have incomplete data on current status and trends of their natural resources. C2Si can assist through providing biodiversity rapid assessment surveys, setting up biodiversity and disease monitoring systems within countries, and remote sensing and GIS analyses. Also, realizing that water resources in many parts of the world are currently or may become an issue of regional, national and international interest, C2Si will assist in developing inventories of water resources, assessments on quality and quantity. Assessment services include:

Biodiversity Rapid Assessment Protocol Surveys
Invasive Species Assessments
Emerging Infectious Disease Risk Analysis and Surveys
Water resource inventory and assessment

Predictive Modeling & Risk Assessment.

Predictive modeling of existing or potential risks of environmental and climate change, including modeling biological, economic, security, and political impacts of such change for individual countries, regions, and businesses.

Developing Solutions.

Providing solutions to existing and predicted conservation and environmental problems.
Conservation Planning and Programs
Developing conservation off-sets for government and third-party investors.
Conservation “banking” through natural capital & resilience management: Forests, Wetlands, Barrier Islands, Coral Reefs & Mangroves
Setting up monitoring systems
Park and protected area development
Water management plans and strategies

Climate Change Adaptation

C₂Si will provide to governments (foreign and domestic), industry and business interests, investors, and insurance interests, science & technology-based assessments of risk stemming from climate change for particular countries, regions, or industries. This assessment will predict the range of expected changes with confidence intervals, how these changes will affect a community, region, or country. Further, these risk assessments can also weigh the risk to foreign investment based on whether adaptation strategies to the predicted changes are adopted. C₂Si will also help create and implement strategies for adapting to global climatic disruption to minimize the impacts of climate change on the local environmental and resources, and on the livelihoods of the people. This includes putting into place the specific environmental, policy, legal, regulatory, and financial mechanisms to prepare countries to adapt to environmental changes stemming from climate change and its effects.

Funding for this component will come from private industry, investment and insurance funds, development agencies, international organizations, including specific funds set aside for adaptation to climate change.

Specific services include:

risk assessments of the potential range of effects of climate change for governments, development agencies, investors, and insurance companies through a spatial, multidisciplinary approach to climate change and its downstream effects.
developing strategies for mitigation of climate change effects through adaptation of current policies, institutions, and physical and natural environments.
assisting governments and others in implementing adaptation strategies using science and technology-based solutions.

Carbon Brokerage & Auditing Services

C₂Si seeks to connect supply and demand for ecosystem services and products from the developing world, including supporting and initiating carbon trading products, through the development of a carbon credit brokerage, and through providing auditing services to assist with the evaluation, monitoring, and verification of existing carbon products.

Development of Carbon Products

Both bottom-up and top-down studies indicate that there is substantial economic potential for the mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades. With significant effort, carbon markets and environmental protections could offset the projected growth of global emissions and reduce emissions below current levels. The potential market for forest-related carbon products is estimated at 420 billion USD/year. C₂Si proposes to take advantage of this market through the development of carbon tradable forestry products in conservation, including parks and protected areas, sustainable agriculture, ecotourism, and changes in policy and management.

C₂Si will work with existing conservation organizations in developing countries to identify and develop projects that we may use for carbon credits within a portfolio of products. Further, C₂Si will also create a carbon auction market for conservation-based credits that would facilitate credits that have the dual purpose of participating in carbon markets and the conservation of biodiversity. C₂Si will connect international companies with conservation organizations in these target countries through our carbon brokerage services to develop these premium products.

As capacity building is a key component of our work, we will also work with governments, local NGOs, and private landowners by leading and mentoring them through this process. The process for getting a registered project under Kyoto and other current trading schemes is complex, and one that current excludes local communities and smaller NGOs from participation. By bundling smaller projects, we will tap a part of the market that is overlooked and undervalued, but still create larger products that would be tradable at a premium based on their conservation as well as carbon value. Funding comes from basis points charged from each deal and the provision of

capacity building services to countries.

Auditing and Monitoring Solutions

There are few standards or monitoring options that are independent of the organizations that are setting up natural resource-based carbon products. C₂Si will provide independent “carbon auditing” services to help police carbon agreements for the 5 year duration of the credit and prevent “leakage” (the shifting of degradative activities to another country), but also to help develop longer-term agreements through generic carbon credits that represent a portfolio of multiple and unique projects that would allow flexibility to meet the needs of industry. Finally, C₂Si will provide rating services on potential carbon deals to identify their stability and conservation value.

Funding for this component comes from service fees for auditing services.

Legal, Policy, and Institutional Development

Economic development through natural resource management and biodiversity conservation depends on the creation of effective institutions and policies that will mitigate existing threats and increase opportunities for conservation through better governance, enforcement, and support for the rule of law. To effectively manage and protect natural resources, governments must identify means in which to regulate these resources to ensure sustainability.

C₂Si will work with governments and donor institutions to draft meaningful laws and substantive regulations, to develop effective natural resource management policies, and assist developing country governance institutions in regulating the environment, creating protected areas, and coordinating activities for biodiversity conservation and adaptation to global climate disruption.

Specific activities include:

Drafting environmental laws and regulations.
Governance and Rule of Law through conservation and natural resources management
Conservation policy development
Accession and adherence to international treaties
Environmental proxy/Environmental coach services for countries
International trade & environment policy
Development of multi-state peace parks, national parks, protected areas, and institutions
Global lobbying services (US, EU, WTO, World Bank)
Environmental & science diplomacy
Adapting emerging markets to global climate disruption.

Building Capacity: Helping people to help themselves

Capacity building is at the core of our work. Building institutional and local capacity to establish and maintain environmental security is the central endeavor that runs through all of C2Si’s activities.

Training and education in environmental conservation and natural resource sustainability represent powerful tools for meeting basic needs of people (clean air, clean water, food, housing), generating jobs, improving incomes, and expanding the opportunities available to people in post conflict and transitional countries. The key is to avoid building a culture of dependency on foreign assistance that is counterproductive to our goals.

Through short courses, practical field training and extensive mentorship, international training opportunities in science and science policy, and broad scale public diplomacy and educational activities, we will work with countries and institutions in adapting to global climate change.

Direct Training. Through hands on training and mentoring C2Si will have staff embedded in client countries working to develop local knowledge, expertise in natural resource management, environmental regulation, creative technology-based solutions, and scientific assessment. Not only will this approach better prepare the country to adapt and respond to changes within their natural resources, but it will also create employment opportunities and positively effect local economic development.
Linkages to existing scientific institutions and programs in academia
Access to current knowledge: Global Virtual Science Libraries