Conservation Finance Network

Small forests add up to potentially significant pools of carbon storage. Carbon credits as structured don't make that an economic business for small owners- yet.

In August, an estimated 4.6 million acres of the Amazon rainforest burned in a government-condoned campaign to clear land for crops and cattle. What most of the world saw as a hopeless and horrifying political problem, though, Bjorn Otto saw as a math problem. And math problems can be solved.

The $1 billion sustainable agriculture and forestry initiative “AGRI3” has been strengthened by two new cornerstone investors. At the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 23, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it will become an anchor public investor in the AGRI3 Fund by contributing USD 40 million – an amount matched by Rabobank.

As gridlock persists in addressing our nation’s critical infrastructure challenges – America’s roads, bridges and railways – a similar, yet vastly underreported set of challenges exist with our natural infrastructure: namely, the loss of our large privately-owned working forests.

Terra Silva, a new $90 million fund of funds, will help eight to 10 investment fund managers prove that sustainable tropical forests are a profitable bet for commercial investors.

BP Ventures has invested $5 million in Finite Resources, parent company of Finite Carbon, which is a U.S.-based forest carbon management firm. The investment will enable Finite Carbon to launch voluntary carbon offset programs for businesses for sustainable forest management.

The Conservation Fund has a goal of conserving 5 million acres of at-risk forests in the next 15 years. They’ve announced the closing of unique 10-year green bonds totaling $150 million.

The Conservation Fund announced the closing of a first-of-its-kind offer of ten-year green bonds totaling $150 million. Proceeds from the bonds will be used to increase the scale of the Fund's "Working Forest Fund®," dedicated to mitigating climate change, strengthening rural economies and protecting natural ecosystems through the permanent conservation of at-risk working forests.