Author: Will Slotznick Photo: Tim Mossholder US private investors are increasingly attracted to regenerative agriculture for its economic potential and observed resistance to broader market contractions. With approximately $50 billion deployed in US sustainable farmland and regenerative agriculture projects today, this represents a significant capital infusion from the private sector...
In late April, the Conservation Finance Network hosted our 12th annual Conservation Finance Roundtable at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in Durham, North Carolina. Nearly 100 attendees came together from across the country to participate in a series of sessions on topics ranging from nature-based solutions and interim...
Nature-based solutions are defined as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore natural or modified ecosystems to address societal challenges, simultaneously providing benefits for people and the environment” (https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/issues/nature-based-solutions). They include actions like protecting forests, restoring wetlands, increasing carbon storage in soil through improved agricultural management, and reconnecting rivers to...
Late in 2023, the Conservation Finance Network, in collaboration with the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale University, hosted a panel discussion in New Haven, CT about new federal funding opportunities for nature-based solutions. Moderated by Walker Holmes, Vice President, Mid-Atlantic Region and Connecticut State Director for the...
This past June, our team held the 17th Conservation Finance Boot Camp at Yale University in New Haven, CT in partnership with the Center for Business and Environment and the Yale School of the Environment. The event was an especially memorable event as we returned to Yale’s School of the...
Eighty-five practitioners from across the United States came to Chicago in April, 2023 to attend the Conservation Finance Network roundtable. The two-day meeting was full of presentations on innovative projects taking place at multiple scales, in different geographies, and led by nonprofit, public, and private entities. The roundtable featured a...
A green sanctuary in the heart of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, Finca Chimelb hums with the melody of melodious blackbirds and chatter among local laborers. Spanning 4,751 hectares, the farm consists of rolling hills lined with high-value crops, such as cacao, specialty coffee, and cardamom, paired with rubber trees and other...
In many parts of the world, clean water is still an untapped market – but a flow of innovative finance is beginning to change this. Currently, the United Nations estimates that between $182 billion to over $600 billion annually is needed to address the global water crisis. Worldwide, millions of...
Food companies have started to incorporate regenerative agriculture into their sustainability strategies and supply chains - it’s an important buzzword today for companies, but how are they defining it? And what are they doing to support farmers in the transition? I spoke with Daily Harvest - the plant-based meal delivery...
In December 2022 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) advocated urgency for an expedited 2025 timeline to more than double finance flows in nature-based solutions (NbS) to limit climate change to below 1.5°C, halt biodiversity loss, and achieve land degradation neutrality. UNEP published the second edition of its “State of...
