Cache: Creating Natural Economies

Spencer Beebe believes that a more reliable prosperity will elude us unless we change our relations with each other and with the rest of the natural world. Cache: Creating Natural Economies provides on-the-ground examples of how we can do this.

Beebe, who has been described as a practical visionary, has been at the forefront of efforts to create more resilient communities, economies, and environments for four decades. In the 1970s he ran the Northwest and Western regional programs of The Nature Conservancy; in the 1980s he developed The Nature Conservancy international program and was founding president of Conservation International; today he is founder and president of Ecotrust, where his innovations include founding the world's first environmental bank; creating a range of programs in fisheries, forestry, food, and farms; establishing an annual awards program that honors and supports the work of indigenous people; and developing new scientific and information tools to improve social, economic, and environmental decision-making.

Cache not only recounts Beebe's personal journey, but also traces the parallel evolution of the environmental movement and provides fresh thinking about the road ahead.

It is a book for business people who wish to build businesses with more than the bottom-line in mind; for conservationists who wish to get practical results in a world not always sympathetic to their goals; and for people who simply love nature and, like Beebe, try to learn from it. Cache is, in Tom Brokaw's words, an "evocative and inspirational book."

Spencer B. Beebe is founder and president of Ecotrust in Portland, Oregon. Spencer earned degrees from Williams College and Yale School of Forestry, and has received two honorary doctorates. He served in the Peace Corps in Honduras, worked with The Nature Conservancy for thirteen years, and in 1987, became founding president of Conservation International. In 1991, he returned to his native Northwest to establish Ecotrust. Spencer is a backcountry pilot, fly fisherman, and fourth-generation Oregonian. He and his wife, Jane, have three grown children.