Blue Recovery Bond: Reversing the Financial Incentives for Overfishing

Proponent:

Planet Tracker

Short Description:

In many cases, overfishing occurs because fishing companies are financially incentivized to fish as much as they legally can. But what if fishing incentives were better aligned with sustainability? Planet Tracker’s award-winning ‘Blue Recovery Bond’ concept shows how paying fishing companies to fish less could be both financially and environmentally rewarding.  With the Blue Recovery Bond, fishing companies that agree to a temporary decrease in fish catch receive compensation from investors until fish populations have sufficiently recovered whereupon fishing companies can harvest strong yields with less effort and thus, greater profit.  Bond investors are repaid through a catch levy.

Microfinance for Community Conservation

Proponent:

Kiva, WWF

Short Description:

Effectively managed microfinance lending can help small and medium enterprise (SME) owners to start, sustain, and grow their businesses. However, this model has been limited to mostly urban settings due to high transaction costs for operations in rural and indigenous communities, such as in the Amazon biome.  This project is a proposed collaboration between WWF and Kiva - a nonprofit organization that manages a crowdfunding platform that raises and disburses USD 150+ million in loans annually to support microentrepreneurs and social enterprises around the world.  The goal is to structure a collaborative arrangement that provides initial grant funding to establish community relationships, technical assistance for nature-based business development, and financial education within target communities – thus creating enabling conditions for microlending from Kiva. This approach can mainstream conservation of natural resources among local economies in the Amazon while enhancing livelihoods in rural and indigenous communities – further empowering them to steward their own lands. Ideally, after completing the initial lending cycle, these enterprises will be able to access mainstream lending.

Mwenzi Capital

Proponent:

Conservation Capital

Short Description:

The financial sustainability of modern African conservation landscapes is often built around portfolios of nature-based businesses – particularly in the tourism sector; and while these can comprise both successful and responsible businesses, they are all too often characterized by one major shortcoming – their ownership structure does not meaningfully engage or benefit local stakeholders.  The conservation community has historically attempted to address this ownership divide by building new community-owned enterprises that lack competitiveness, have long pathways to profitability, and high risks. Mwenzi Capital seeks to democratize existing conservation-focused enterprise ownership and value streams in critical African conservation landscapes.  This will be done through making specially structured investments in existing, and hence de-risked, revenue generating nature-based businesses that could benefit from stronger community collaboration – and directing ownership or revenue back to collaborating communities and conservation organizations so that all parties benefit from the enterprise’s enhanced success.  The approach is both scalable and flexible and, in tourism markets at least, has current relevance and applicability in the post-Covid-19 period. Initial pipeline development revealed has significant appetite.

Ocean Eye

Proponent:

Ocean Eye

Global studies have shown that stakeholder buy-in is the number one success factor in marine conservation, but too often coastal communities lack incentives to support conservation initiatives. Ocean Eye is a fintech solution for the tourism sector that facilitates micro payments by marine tourists towards coastal communities based on wildlife sightings. In other words, Ocean Eye is a data collection and financial transfer platform that collects wildlife sighting data and transfers ecosystem service payments. The animal sighting reports are directly linked to small payments from tourists that go to coastal communities and incentivize the protection of endangered and vulnerable species. The mechanism creates incentives for communities to reduce harm to nature and become conservation allies.

Ng’wala Inventions

Proponent:

Edmond Ng’walago, Ng'wala Inventions

Short Description:

Ng’wala Inventions has developed automated solar powered bio-pesticide/bio-fertilizer dispensing machines for rural organic farmers.  The digital machines allow the use of mobile money and electronic cards to deliver organic pesticides and fertilizers to smallholder famers on demand, on credit, on site and at low cost while protecting human health and the environment.  Not only does the system facilitate access to locally made organic pesticides and fertilizers but it eliminates a dangerous source of chemical exposure for the farmers, their communities, and nature by eliminating the use of harmful chemicals and pesticide containers that commonly end up in waterways. The machines are installed at strategic locations for organic farming activities, thus, allowing farmers to reduce transport cost and save time.

Nature 4 Climate Fund

Proponent:

Natural Strategies Investments

Short Description:

Forest ecosystems are vital stabilizers for our global climate, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. The Nature 4 Climate Fund (N4C Fund) will address this challenge by directing capital and resources towards nature-based solutions to climate change and natural infrastructure.  The Fund aims to bridge commercial interests and long-term sustainable solutions by effectively connecting capital with conservation and restoration.  The N4C Fund is one of the recent winners of the International Climate Finance Accelerator program.  The Fund is being developed by Natural Strategies Investments – experts in financing nature-based solutions.

Decentralized Finance “DeFi” Registries in Water Quality Markets

Proponents:

Ecomarket Services / Aqaix / i2 Capital

Short Description:

Decentralized Finance – DeFi – could revolutionize conservation finance. It has potential to quickly, inexpensively, and securely register and track units of environmental protection, provide ongoing revenue for restoration projects, and appeal to a new generation of conservation practitioners and funders. Thus far, however, water quality markets have not benefited from DeFi. Key barriers to uptake involve highly variable approaches for registering water quality units across the agriculture, urban stormwater, and municipal wastewater sectors. This project will test the viability of a business that “tokenizes” water quality improvements and sells them through a standard architecture using a clear prototype that applies DeFi concepts to an existing U.S. program.