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Ecotrust

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Areas of expertise & Fields of activity:	Economic and Social: Agriculture Biodiversity Business and Industry Citizenship and Governance Climate Change Development Economics and Finance Energy Environment Financing for Development Food Habitat Indigenous Peoples Information Peace and Security Science and Technology Social Development Statistics Sustainable Development Trade and Development Water Financing for Development: Increasing financial and technical cooperation for development Public Administration: Knowledge Systems and E-government Social Development: Indigenous issues Social policy Statistics: Demographic and social surveys Development indicators Environmental Accounts Sustainable Development: Agriculture Biodiversity Capacity-building Climate change Consumption and production patterns Demographics Education Energy Finance Forests Freshwater Indicators Information for decision-making and participation Integrated decision-making Land management Marine Resources Oceans and seas Partnerships Protecting and managing the natural resources Science Trade and environment
Geographic scope:	Regional North America
Country of activity:	United States of America
Millennium Development Goals:	Ensure environmental sustainability
Mission statement:	Ecotrust’s mission is to inspire fresh thinking that creates social equity, economic opportunity, and environmental well-being. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Ecotrust is a unique organization that integrates public and private purpose, and for-profit and non-profit structures. The organization works locally in ways that promise hope abroad, and takes inspiration from the wisdom of Native and First Nations. Ecotrust's many innovations include co-founding the world's first environmental bank, starting the world's first ecosystem investment fund, creating a range of programs in fisheries, forestry, food, farms and children's health, and developing new scientific and information tools to improve social, economic and environmental decision-making. Over nearly 20 years, Ecotrust has converted $80 million in grants into more than $500 million in capital for local people, businesses, and organizations from Alaska to California. Since its founding in 1991, Ecotrust has worked in the land and marine-scapes and communities of the coastal temperate rainforest bioregion in the Western United States, seeking paths towards more “natural economies”. We strive for a new development model that restores community, ecosystem, and economic resilience. Systemic change from an “industrial” to a more “natural” and resilient economy does not come easily and there are no quick answers to our global dilemmas about energy, poverty, health, culture, and the ecosystem services that sustain us. Ecotrust’s role in this challenge is to innovate, invest in, and inspire place-based solutions that rise naturally from the bottom up to create reliable prosperity. In our view, the world's cultural, political and economic systems are ultimately built on the back of the natural order, and the collapse of that order threatens everything else. In a world of reliable prosperity, economic arrangements of all kinds are gradually redesigned so that they restore, rather than deplete, nature and society. Addressing the fundamental needs of people — and the ecosystems that sustain them — is the starting point for a different kind of economic prosperity that can endure generation after generation.Practiced at bioregional scales in universally applicable ways, these strategies offer transformative opportunities to improve environmental, social, and economic conditions worldwide. Ecotrust’s goal is to establish tangible examples of success and share them with the world, promoting the development of fresh thinking and innovative action in the environmental movement and beyond.
Year established:	1991
Year of registration:	1991
Organizational structure:	Ecotrust has a board of 14, under the leadership of a board chair and the president. The organization’s operations are guided by the president and board, along with a chief financial and operating officer, a CEO of Ecotrust Forest Management, and four vice presidents. Vice presidents of Community Ecosystem Services, Forestry and Ecosystem Services, Food and Farms, and Knowledge Systems oversee Ecotrust’s programs, supported by administrative, development, and communications staff. Ecotrust comprises a staff of approximately 60.
Affiliation with NGO networks:	Ecotrust has founded several other NGOs; co-founded the world's first environmental bank ShoreBank Pacific and Shorebank Enterprise Cascadia, created the North Pacific Fisheries Trust, and helped launch Ecotrust Canada and Ecotrust Australia.
Funding structure:	Fees for providing consulting or research services Product sales and business services Donations and grants from domestic sources

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