Where careers and cycles grow?

Can a Partnership Bury Carbon and Elevate Equity in Ghana?

Jessica Bediako
In Ghana, fertile forests have attracted poaching and razing. Now they're attracting a coalition that aims to restore forests and empower female farmers. Leaders aim for the restoration of 200,000 hectares of off-reserve savannah forests/woodlands by placing them under collaborative sustainable natural resource management mechanisms known as Community Resource Management...
Cash flows and rivers flow

The Washington Farmland Trust, which crafted the Conservation Note, provided this image. 

Good Crops, Good Credit: How a Northwest Land Trust Sustains Farmland With Capital

Katie Michels
How does a farmer with no desire to keep growing crops become a catalyst for financial value and land preservation? The Washington Farmland Trust worked with a farmer at the end of his career to craft a financial package that would keep his land from developers, sustain ecosystem services, and...
So this panther walks into a bank...

(Courtesy Mark Conlin/Alamy, via the NRDC website.)

Species and Habitat Conservation Banking

Amanda Zhang, Katie Allen
*It should be noted that with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, many conservation banks along with other conservation projects are facing uncertain futures because the pandemic has put a stress on current and future funding. For many years, conservationists, landowners, and developers have met at crossroads when handling cases of endangered...

Aligning Conservation and Community Development for Increased Impact in Sentinel Landscapes—and Beyond

Kendra Briechle
What makes efforts to preserve land harmonize with efforts to promote commerce? In this article, we review several examples. Entrepreneurs learn to bolster terrain for hikers (who drink beer), historically sensitive consumers, and fellow merchants. These examples show how creative approaches to promoting conservation and community-based development can yield ongoing...
Regenerative ag's open for business- and investment

This "beyond organic" farm in New York's Hudson Valley earned capital from a REIT that saw its growth potential. 

So, You're Thinking of Investing in Regenerative Food Systems...

Cortney Ahern Renton, Claire Huntley Lafave, Katie Sierks
The traditional landscape of farmland ownership and financing in the United States thwarts the adoption of regenerative agriculture. First, farmland is expensive. Farm real estate prices have doubled in the last decade. But models have emerged to power regenerative practices forward. These include concessionary capital, financing from real estate investment...
Is this the way to crop reform?

(Photo courtesy of Pexels.com) Farmers can deliver steeper returns to themselves, their ecosystem, and their economy when their insurance system makes more sense. 

The Case for Crop Insurance Reform

Cortney Ahern Renton, Claire Huntley Lafave, Katie Sierks
Across the political spectrum, most Americans have favorable opinions of farmers and are happy with the idea that the federal government provides financial assistance to help pay for crop insurance. If they knew crop insurance's full cost, that might change. This system, while well-intentioned, leaves out the majority of farmers...