The CFA Incubator - Update

The CFA recently closed (Jan 31, 2020) a call for proposals for its first round of virtual incubation.  The CFA Incubator will award 5 subgrants of $25,000 each and mentorship support to the top 5 proposals received.  Announcement of the successful proposals will be made next week. Many thanks to our partners and communications channels as well as all of the amazing conservation finance entrepreneurs whom applied. We received 75 fascinating and inspiring applications from a wide geography (42 countries) and diverse organizations with over a quarter being led by women.  The overwhelming positive response to this Call combined with the quality of the proposals received has encouraged us to expand the mentoring support for projects to an additional 10 proposals.  These additional 10 chosen projects will be supported through CFA Staff and Member mentors.  All 15 projects accepted into the CFA Incubator will have the opportunity to present their ideas during the World Conservation Congress at the CFA Pavilion. We are very excited to begin the mentorship process!

 If you are interested in being a mentor and are not part of the CFA Innovation Working Group, please join the Working Group via this link.   

The following is a quick summary of the applications received: 

The diversity of applicant organizations, their geographic distribution and ideas that they contain are truly representative of the CFA membership and indicate the growing interest in the CFA from conservation finance practitioners.  We are pleased to see such a positive response and believe that we can build a solid program that will stimulate additional conservation finance activities. The CFA Incubator Technical Review Committee is currently reviewing all applications using the previously agreed upon scoring criteria. Recipients will be announced shortly.

The CFA is currently seeking additional technical and financial partnerships for the CFA Incubator, building from our current partnerships that include:

·       Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM)

·       MAVA Foundation

·       Conservation International Ventures

·       Posaidon

Please contact David Meyers, Executive Director of the CFA for further information.

Again, if you are interested in mentoring one of these amazing concepts but are not yet part of the Innovation Working Group, please join the Working Group by visiting the Innovation WG page on the CFA website or contacting the Secretariat.

The Nature Conservancy is Seeking a Product Development Director, Debt Conversions

The Director, Product Development, Debt Conversions will report to the Deputy Managing Director, Blue Bonds in NatureVest. Debt Conversions involve negotiating the restructuring of a country’s sovereign debt using investment capital and credit enhancement to create funding to finance marine conservation and related activities in the country.   

The Director’s role shall be to lead the development and implementation of debt conversions primarily in the Africa region, but potentially in other regions across the globe where Debt Conversions opportunities can be identified. S/he/they will engage in all aspects of capital-raising including the soliciting of potential investors and donors, and the management of investor relationships. Key responsibilities shall also include: identifying and negotiating key partnership arrangements, developing financial models (including the incorporation of blended finance and credit enhancement mechanisms), performing due diligence and risk assessments / mitigation, developing internal and external materials, and structuring and closing the deals.  

More information on the position and how to apply is available on The Nature Conservancy’s website.

All applications must be submitted in the system prior to 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on March 14, 2020.

Save the date: Circular economy webinar with Fenix Outdoor International, MAFH and WBCSD

Delivering a circular economy and eliminating waste is a big issue facing many industries. Increased pressure is forcing companies to look across the life cycle of all their products, to reduce impacts and increase the recyclability of products, from the start – the design stage. 

Ethical Corporation will host a one-hour webinar with three senior leaders sharing their practical ideas on how innovative businesses are implementing circularity across all business operations. 

Click here to register for the webinar now.

Save the date and join us on Wednesday 19th February at 12:00GMT / 13:00 CET for our free online webinar with: 

Speakers include: 

• Ibrahim Al Zubi, Chief Sustainability Officer, MAFH – Sustainability

• Aiko Bode, Chief Sustainability and Chief Compliance Officer, Fenix Outdoor International

Moderated by Brendan Edgerton, Director, Circular Economy, WBCSD

Key areas of discussion include: 

• How instil a circular approach within R&D and design stage

• How to make the business case for your company to embrace a circular approach

• How to attribute accounting values to investments & implementation of circular operations

• How to measure your progress towards delivering a circular economy

Join us on 19th February and be part of the discussion. Simply click here to be part of the webinar discussion 

If you can’t make the time, no problem. Just register and we will send you the webinar recordings afterwards.

Photo from Conscious Connection 

What We're Reading: Progress in natural capital accounting for ecosystems

From ScienceMag:

“Reversing the ongoing degradation of the planet’s ecosystems requires timely and detailed monitoring of ecosystem change and uses. Yet, the System of National Accounts (SNA), first developed in response to the economic crisis of the 1930s and used by statistical offices worldwide to record economic activity (for example, production, consumption, and asset accumulation), does not make explicit either inputs from the environment to the economy or the cost of environmental degradation. Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (EEA), part of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), has been developed to monitor and report on ecosystem change and use, using the same accounting approach, concepts, and classifications as the SNA. The EEA is part of the statistical community’s response to move SNA measurement “beyond gross domestic product (GDP).” With the first generation of ecosystem accounts now published in 24 countries, and with a push to finalize a United Nations (UN) statistical standard for ecosystem accounting by 2021, we highlight key advances, challenges, and opportunities.”

The full article is available for download here.

What We're Reading: Conserving mangroves, a lifeline for the world

From Apple

“Through Apple’s Earth Day 2018 Give Back campaign, the company has partnered with Conservation International to protect a 27,000 acre mangrove forest in Cispatá Bay on the Caribbean coast of Colombia.”

The full article is available in the Apple Newsroom.

What We're Reading: Mainstreaming Blue Carbon to Finance Coastal Resilience

From the Conservation Finance Network

“The contribution of marine and coastal ecosystems in carbon sequestration, or “blue carbon,” has only recently begun to gain traction in market-based ecosystem management discussions.

At present, existing methods of measuring and monitoring carbon offsets are geared towards terrestrial ecosystems, and do not account for the carbon stored in coastal, marine or wetland soils and biomass.

There are a number of mechanisms in place to facilitate investment  in terrestrial carbon through regulatory markets which could be adapted to include blue carbon.”

The full article is available on the Conservation Finance Network website.

What We're Reading - Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy

From World Economic Forum:

“It is not surprising that the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Risks Report (GRR), through its comprehensive risks perception survey, ranks biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as one of the top five risks in terms of likelihood and impact in the coming 10 years. Yet general confusion persists on what amount of nature loss has occurred, why it relates to human prosperity and how to confront its loss in a practical manner, especially in the business world. Following on the heels of the 2020 GRR, this report provides a deep dive into how nature loss is material to businesses in all industry sectors and makes a clear argument for nature-related risks to be regularly identified, assessed and disclosed by business – as is now increasingly the case for climate change risks. This will help prevent risk mispricing and inaccurate capital buffers, as well as guiding action to mitigate and adapt business activities that degrade and destroy nature.”

The full article is available here.

Conservation Strategy Fund Offering NUMBERS for NATURE: Economics & Finance for Environmental Leadership Course

Conservation Strategy Fund in collaboration with CFA is offering a one-week version of our flagship two-week international training course in Washington DC this summer.

I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity and spread the word to folks who would like a greater degree of literacy in conservation economics. After taking this course, participants will understand how, with the proper use of economic tools, we can achieve better outcomes for nature AND people.

This sought after course will be held from July 13-17, and will include other professionals from around the world. 

More information is available at this link or on this downloadable flyer.

The MedFund is issuing a Request for Proposals to develop its 5-year resource mobilization strategy

The MedFund is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop its 5-year resource mobilization strategy.

The RFP and Terms of reference contain all the necessary information for interested Offerors.

Consulting firms, Consultants, must send their bids via email to contact@themedfund.org by February 28th 2020 by midnight (CET time).

Fauna & Flora International Seeking Temporary Director of Conservation Finance and Enterprise

Start Date: 1 April 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter

Contract Type: This is a temporary position to provide parental leave cover and will terminate on or before 16 April 2021 on the return of the Director, Conservation Finance & Enterprise from parental leave.

Location: Fauna & Flora International, Cambridge, UK

FFI is seeking a Director to lead the operational management, implementation and development of FFI’s Conservation Finance & Enterprise programme.

Further information is available here on the F&F website.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday, 5 February 2020.