Conservation Alpha (Global)
Biodiversity conservation struggles with significant funding shortfalls despite major global losses in biodiversity; the conservation sector needs to: a) become more efficient with existing finances; and b) develop new investment opportunities. Deploying investment capital to the conservation sector is often limited by a lack of investable projects and organizations. Taking ill-informed investment risks may lead to ineffective and inefficient expenditure, resulting in failed outcomes and deterring additional private and philanthropic investment. This project seeks to develop a conservation-focused due diligence standard to assess and potentially accredit organizations (such as PA Agencies) as a means of guiding and de-risking investments for a broad range of financiers from blended finance to private capital markets. An accepted conservation due diligence standard, properly used, will allow impact investors, corporates, DFIs and donors to better understand and rationalize trade-offs in their decisions. Our multi-disciplinary project team brings due diligence best practices drawn from the conservation, investment banking, management consultancy, and ESG sectors, as well as experiences from launching a Conservation Impact Bond. Through the CFA Incubator, Conservation Alpha (www.conservationalpha.com) will work with our partners to develop an implementation plan (to inform the next product development stage) including the framework template for a conservation-focused due diligence standard based on a rigorous market survey