Finance and Forestry Roundtable
A Long Finance Event
Monday 20 September - 10:30 to 12:00 - Guildhall, City of London

Z/Yen, as a delivery partner of the Financial Services Knowledge Transfer Network, hosted a roundtable discussion prior to the Long Finance conference on behalf of Natural Environment Research Council to discuss the final report on "Finance And Forestry: Where's The Data?" which is available to download here.

The panellists were Andy Shaw (National Centre for Earth Observation), Dr Genevieve Patenaude (University of Edinburgh), Richard Max-Lino (Green Economy Strategist - Financial Services NERC) and Dr Malcolm Cooper (Z/Yen Group and co-author of the report), and Dr Alan Grainger (University of Leeds).

The project was carried out to scope forestry data and the modelling needs of investment decision-makers in support of sustainable forests and forest carbon. The project focussed on the following questions:

• Who invests in forestry or related areas (such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degredation, REDD, and Clean Development Mechanisms, CDMs)? In what areas are they investing?
• What data is currently available and how do financial services firms use this data to support their decision to invest?
• Are financial services firms seeking other data? If so, what kind of data?
• Is NERC in a position to provide that data?
• If so, how best could NERC collate and disseminate their research to the benefit of financial services?

The roundtable presented an opportunity not only to discuss the conclusions in the report but to further the links between financial services professionals in the City and the forestry and earth observation research communities.

Two further reports are being carried out to scope the data and modelling needs of the financial services in relation to water and biodiversity:

• "Finance And Water: Where's The Data?" will be presented at the London Accord autumn conference 2010 at the Museum of London;
• "Finance, Biodiversity And Managed Ecosystems: Where's The Data?" is ongoing and will be presented in early 2011. If you would like more information on this project please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Following the roundtable, the Long Finance autumn conference took place in the Great Hall, Guildhall.