With one week to go, we wanted to make sure Payment for Ecosystem Services: A Conservation Tool for Florida's Future is on your calendar.

What if Florida's farms, forests, wetlands, and working lands were compensated for the services they already provide — clean water, flood protection, wildlife habitat, and more?  

On September 2, four leading voices in agriculture, conservation, and finance will join us to explore how Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), a promising yet underutilized tool in conservation, can value Florida's farms, forests, wetlands, and working lands not just for what they produce, but for what they protect. 

This is the first session in our three-part series on Planning to Protect the Florida Wildlife Corridor 3.0.

 Meet the Speakers

• Dr. Laila Racevskis (The Balmoral Group) – Will explore why PES is a critical tool and provide an overview of programs in Florida.

• Parker Hall (Hall’s Tiger Bay Ranch, fourth-generation rancher) – Will share a landowner’s perspective on the importance of PES and the intersection between agriculture and conservation.  

• Chad Ellis (Texas Agricultural Land Trust) – Will highlight national grassland carbon sequestration programs and provide a look at upcoming work at Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch.  

• Dr. Thomas Eason (Property and Environmental Research Center) – Will share lessons learned from PERC’s efforts to advance voluntary, market-based, and property rights-grounded conservation across the country, including a look at the Paradise Valley Brucellosis Compensation Fund.

From water quality credits and flood mitigation to programs like the Florida panther PES initiative, we'll unpack how innovative funding mechanisms can forge new partnerships between landowners, governments, and the private sector to keep working lands working, and wild lands wild, for generations to come.

Register at: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GQKQ-l-VRHGU0u_AaKS_4g#/registration

The webinar is free, but registration is required. Don’t wait, sign up today!

Payment for Ecosystem Services: A Conservation Tool for Florida's Future

Wednesday, September 2

Noon–2:00 p.m. (EDT)

Virtual | Free

Approved Continuing Education Credits (available to live attendees only)

• American Institute of Certified Planners — 2 AICP CM (#9331522)
• Florida Bar — 2.5 General CLE (#2607406N)
• Florida DBPR Landscape Architects - 2.0 (#0015986) 
• Certified Floodplain Managers — 1 CEC 
• Florida Certified Environmental Health Professionals — 2 Contact Hours / 0.2 CEUs

The University of Florida Center for Landscape Conservation Planning, Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation, Live Wildly Foundation, Florida Conservation Group, Solutions from the Land, Florida Smart Agriculture, and 1000 Friends of Florida are proud to partner on a third year of the Planning to Protect the Florida Wildlife Corridor webinar series.