In 2015, wildfire burned over10 million acres of land在记录的历史上，整个美国首次在美国。这不是异常：在10个最严重的火灾季节中，有9个发生了since 2000。

2017年正在加入列表几乎850万英亩as of September 17. Wildfires have been particularly vicious in the western U.S.,choking Seattle with smoke,破坏著名的哥伦比亚河峡谷，并威胁洛杉矶largest fire in the city's history。

森林是three to four times as dense就像一个世纪前，过多的植被增加了野火的风险。因此，40％在美国森林服务局的1.93亿英亩的公共森林和草原中，有严重野火的“高风险”。

森林修复 - 战略清除刷子和灌木以及树木的选择性稀疏 - 可能会帮助将森林恢复到更健康的状态。但是，该机构远远远远远远没有按照所需的规模来为工作所需的资源。

需要一种雄心勃勃的新方法。一种称为森林弹性债券的方法将使私人投资者能够帮助弥合森林修复的需求与可用于修复项目的资本之间的差距。

避免“借用”

Forests restored to a more natural density face a lower risk of severe wildfire, which protects water quality and watershed resilience while avoiding devastating carbon emissions from wildfires. However, despite the financial, social, and environmental benefits that restoration would create, the USFS lacks the resources to implement treatments. That's due to a vicious cycle known as "fire borrowing," in which USFS pays to fight today's fires out of the funds designed to prevent tomorrow's.

现在，USF仅花费一半以上的预算来扑灭大火。剩下的未检查，预计到2025年，抑制火势将增加到总预算的三分之二，导致几乎$700 million less available each year主动修复和其他促进森林健康的举措。

Fighting Fire with Finance

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Forest restoration generates positive impact and economic value not just for USFS but also for a wide array of beneficiaries. Water and electric utilities save money when there are fewer severe fires because trees and vegetation hold soil that would otherwise erode, contaminating and clogging drinking water systems and reducing hydroelectricity generation capacity. In places like California, where超过60％的水起源于内华达山脉的森林, restored forests can potentially lead to additional water quantity for utilities. With the ideal amount of vegetation present, excess plants and trees no longer consume inordinate precipitation. Restoration also allows state governments to protect rural communities while creating restoration-related jobs and avoiding dangerous emissions from severe wildfires.

在许多情况下，森林恢复的多利益相关者价值远远超过了其成本，如果存在这种机会，将为投资带来令人信服的经济案例。认识到这种潜力，一种称为森林弹性债券的新方法已被带头Blue Forest Conservation, the必威官网手机版， 和Encourage Capital。这种首先的工具将森林修复的受益者与不太可能的盟友：私人投资者汇集在一起​​。

森林弹性债券

The森林弹性债券（FRB）是对森林健康的投资。这是一种公私合作伙伴关系，使私人资本能够为急需的森林修复提供资金。恢复工作的受益人随着时间的推移（最多10年），将成本共享和付费成功付款，以根据项目的成功为投资者提供竞争性收益。

Once investor capital is used to implement the restoration treatments, investors earn back their money from payments by the following beneficiaries:

  • USFS, paying for decreased risk of severe fire;
  • Electric utilities, paying for increased hydroelectricity generation, avoided sedimentation, and protected infrastructure;
  • 水公用事业，支付受保护的水质和改善的水量；和
  • 州和地方政府支付避免灭火成本，避免碳排放，保护社区和创造就业机会的费用。

因为在美国有数十亿美元的森林修复需求($6+ billion in California alone），FRB为寻求稳定回报和环境影响以及USF，州政府和大型公用事业的投资者提供了无与伦比的机会今天to avoid future catastrophe and coststomorrow。

The Potential for Conservation Finance

每年有520亿美元用于全球环境保护，但研究表明至少六次这笔款项对于保护世界的生态系统是必要的。

森林弹性纽带可以帮助应对这一挑战。在他们的inaugural report，“与金融战斗：集体行动的路线图”，FRB teamdetails how conservation finance can be applied not just to forest restoration, but to other environmental contexts across the globe.

With fire seasons getting longer and more severe, relying on public funds to maintain forest health is increasingly unsustainable. Instead, collaborative approaches like the FRB represent an alternate path forward that redefines how conservation is funded. It may be too late for the 2017 fire season, but there is still hope for the tens of millions of acres in need.