Staking the State of Nature, With Data and Urgency

Dimitria Spathakis
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...

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...
Abyssinian Roller Bird

An Incomplete Guide to Biodiversity Credits, Part One

Jinsui (Jazzy) Song
Traditional biodiversity credits give financial value to investments in projects that offset regional biodiversity losses. A biocredit is a unit of biodiversity value created through interventions to conserve, restore or sustainably manage a local site. It is the unification of positive change (or “uplift”) in biodiversity conditions, approximated by place-based...
Elizabeth Schuster, Environmental Economist, Sustainable Economies Consulting

Elizabeth Schuster, Environmental Economist, Sustainable Economies Consulting

Partners Unite to Share Lessons Around Regenerative Agriculture, Forestry, and Conservation

Leigh Whelpton
The Network (CFN) convened partners for their 10th CFN Roundtable, hosted in Durham, NC on November 2-3, 2022. The roundtable brought together nearly 70 practitioners representing nonprofit organizations, foundations, private sector firms, governmental agencies, and universities. The event was organized around nine different panels on a variety of...

Conservation Finance Learning Lab Recap, Part Two: Harvesting a Bumper Crop of Federal Funding

Grace Cajski
The available level of funding does not have recent precedent,” said Leigh Whelpton, Executive Director of the Network. This windfall of potential funding is certainly beneficial to practitioners, who often rely on initial government support to attract private investors.
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...
A photo of the Lower Brule reservation, courtesy Jerry Huddleston via Flickr Creative Commons.

Take in the view of the Lower Brule reservation, courtesy Jerry Huddleston via Flickr Creative Commons. 

Yale Forest Forum Highlights: Carbon Projects for Indigenous Forest Owners

Katie Michels
Bryan Van Stippen’s talk started with an assertion: Tribal nations must “not let their natural resource assets benefit others before they benefit their own communities.” The National Indian Carbon Coalition (NICC) views carbon projects as both economic development and natural resource stewardship opportunities in response to historic extraction and theft.
The Connecticut Green Bank sees potential for capital flows from greenspace like this New Haven park.

Connecticut's Green Bank Seeks Leader for Financing Natural Capital

Alec Appelbaum
States around the nation are changing laws to clarify and speed up financing for natural climate solutions. Now Green Bank CEO Bryan Garcia and his team are looking for a senior team member to crystallize and underwrite the strategy. Garcia says it’d be the first time the green bank has...