Sydney, Australia, 26 September 2008 – Baker & McKenzie is at the forefront of the development of new markets for biodiversity and ecosystem services, working on a cutting edge deal to protect the biodiversity of 34,000 hectares of rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia. 
 
The Malua Wildlife Habitat Conservation Bank (Malua Biobank) was launched in mid-August by the Eco Products Fund, LP, a private equity fund jointly managed by New Forests Inc. of Washington, D.C., Equator Environmental, LLC of New York City, and the Government of Sabah.  The Malua BioBank will generate Biodiversity Conservation Certificates, with each Certificate representing 100 square meters of rainforest restoration and protection. The sale of Biodiversity Conservation Certificates will endow a perpetual conservation trust and generate a return on investment. The TZ1 Registry has been appointed as sole registry provider for the registration and management of these Malua BioBank Biodiversity Conservation Certificates, the first formally appointed biodiversity registry worldwide.
 
Baker & McKenzie's Sydney, New York and Chicago offices have been advising the Eco Products Fund and the TZ1 Registry.  In the Firm's Sydney office, Partner and head of the Firm's Global Climate Change Practice Martijn Wilder, assisted by lawyers Ilona Millar and Liz Day have assisted TZI in the development of its voluntary carbon and biodiversity credit registry . They are also assisting in relation to its appointment   as one of only four approved Voluntary Carbon Standard Association (VCSA) registries worldwide.

Speaking about the registry, Martijn Wilder commented: "We are delighted to assist our clients, the Eco Products Fund and the TZ1 Registry in this exciting project. While we have been working in designing and developing carbon assets for some ten years, biodiversity credits are an entirely new asset class that require careful consideration of the legal nature of such rights and the way in which they can be listed on a registry".