The United Nations Water conference, March 2023

The author's view of the UN Water Conference. 

Funding Clean Water for All at the United Nations Water Conference

Robin Happel
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...

Deep in the Weeds: Panel Pursues "Seagriculture" Investment Models

Grace Cajski
Seaweed—as a food source and beyond—has the potential to be profitable and sustainable, while supporting culturally important cuisines and strengthening the base of the marine food web. Recently, interest in cultivating seaweed, especially in the United States, has grown—but anyone interested in growing seaweed, investing in it, or processing it...
Colorado forest

Conservation Finance Learning Lab Recap, Part One: What's a Carbon Market?

Katie Michels
In this session, panelists from a variety of organizations described their engagement in carbon markets. Spencer Meyer, Head of Science at the carbon-exchange company NCX, moderated a Zoom panel of professionals from not-for-profits, for-profits, carbon project developers, carbon project sellers, and more. Steph Harris, Director of Carbon Markets at carbon...
Getting closer than the pebbles in this stream

Remote technology can carry data faster and finer than humans in the field reliably can. (Photo by ihamr via Flickr Creative Commons.) 

Detecting Change in Conservation: The Value of Remote Sensing

Sam Feibel
The value in land increases when you conserve it- but conserved land grows and moves in many ways. Large and small land-stewardship organizations are investing in remote technology for clearer, more investable pictures of what they're conserving. And investors are learning a new language.
Recovery across the world came before a panel of experts at Yale in January.

The International Society for Tropical Forestry’s 2022 conference at Yale emphasized scale and the importance of COVID-19 recovery efforts for the “Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.”

Financing Tropical Forests: Lessons For Scaling From Yale's Annual Conference

Nadeem Demian
In looking at forest restoration finance in a tropical context, three experts at a Yale-sponsored panel spoke of clearer images from space and more inclusive planning on the ground.
Everyone learns in meetings - but what can we learn about how to run meetings?

With the International Land Conservation Network, CFN offers a handbook for handling gatherings to boost impact. 

How to Bring People Together to Unlock Scaled Conservation Impact

Helen Rogers, Leigh Whelpton
Intractable social and environmental problems require collective action. These challenges demand that we step beyond individual mission statements and business models to craft strategies, chart paths forward, and unlock scaled impact—together. A new guide draws on lessons from convenings around the world to make gatherings more enjoyable and effective.
US capitol

A Pioneering Environmental Impact Bond for DC Water (Updated)

Abby Martin, Alec Appelbaum
District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) created a municipal bond that covers the downside risk of using green infrastructure to control stormwater runoff. By offloading risk to investors, the utility drew new financing -and time to get its practices right. Now other cities are following its lead.