Since the day after the December 9, 2009 Rappahannock River Basin Symposium, Incentivizing Restoration through a Chesapeake Bay Economy, during which 130 citizens concerned about the health of the Rappahannock River and Chesapeake Bay examined a proposal to create a “Chesapeake Bay Economy” via a “Rappahannock Exchange”, Conserv has been busy working with parties on the vangard of ecosystem services theory and practice to create a new Rappahannock Exchange 2.0 proposal.

The revised Exchange has been designed to address concerns discussed by participants at the Symposium (and soon to be published in a Symposium Report). The revised proposal has been designed to be implemented using more of the practices commonly used by companies when undertaking new product development and testing. This will make for a more methodical sequencing of Exchange 2.0 development steps using principles of systems engineering.

For the first time, Conserv has made the Exchange 1.0 available to the general public. We invite others that seek to integrate government and markets to enhance ecosystem restoration to use the proposal and to provide commentary to Conserv that may be added to critique provided by Symposium participants.

We hope release of the document to the general public helps to more rapidly advance human society toward a more sustainable future.

Rappahannock Exchange (1.0) Prospectus

And thanks to Birdfreak.com for the use of this image.

- Michael Collins