Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP), was founded in 2006 to provide a private funding option for important conservation properties, and to demonstrate that good conservation investment can deliver market returns to serious investors. EIP delivers competitive returns to its investors through the use of new, market-based mechanisms that reward landowners for the restoration and protection of their natural resources (such as wetlands, streams and endangered species), as well as the sustainable use of more traditional resources (such as forestry and agriculture).

In July 2007, EIP completed its initial capital raise and also completed its first property acquisition. This property is a private inholding within a National Wildlife Refuge that has significant conservation value. EIP is restoring the property to its original condition as a cypress-cedar ecosystem complex, and will provide Clean Water Act mitigation offsets for unavoidable wetland impacts within the watershed. The acquisition was completed through a co-investment with the Lyme Forest Fund.

EIP’s management team draws on deep and diverse backgrounds in real estate investment, private equity fund management, land conservation and environmental markets. The team consists of:

Fred Danforth has extensive banking and private equity investing background. Fred was a co-founder of Capital Resource Partners, a private equity investment firm. Recently, Fred was a founder of Oxbow Land Management, one of the Inter Mountain West’s leading mitigation banking companies, and of the Upper Clark Fork Mitigation Bank.

Adam Davis is co-founder and was previously Editor-in-Chief of the Ecosystem Marketplace and recipient of the 2002 Ecological Society of America corporate award. He is also President of Solano Partners, Inc., a consulting firm focused on environmental investment and conservation finance.

Nick Dilks has extensive experience in land conservation finance and real estate. He spent 10 years with The Conservation Fund, most recently as its Vice President for Real Estate, completing some of TCF's most complex and innovate transactions. He has a BA in Environmental Science & Policy from Duke University and an MBA from the University of Maryland.

David Patrick is Principal of Eco-Asset Management, LLC and has over 25 years of experience in habitat restoration, natural resource planning/management and mitigation banking. Most recently he has been a founder of Oxbow Land Management and has also designed and led the regulatory approval process for the first wetland/stream banks in Montana, the Upper Clark Fork Mitigation Bank.

For more information on Ecosystem Investment Partners, please take a look at these articles at Ecosystem Marketplace:

• Partners in Conservation: EIP Pioneers New Model
• From Successful Financier to Mitigation Banker: A profile of Fred Danforth