CFA Incubator Webinar: Greenfi

Tools to design, manage and monitor performance-based and sustainably financed ecosystem restoration and protection projects

Communities which depend on nature and the organizations which support them often lack effective and appropriately-priced tools for local ecosystem management.

We are a team of experienced community-based natural resource practitioners, and in response to the challenge, we provide highly effective and cost-efficient tools to NGOs and companies to help communities who depend on nature to establish and manage reef and forests banks.

Using our tools, communities supported by NGOs or companies, set up community-owned banks, from which loans to community members are issued. When community members repay loans and protect the environment, they receive a credit score which qualifies borrowers for higher levels of credit and lower levels of interest.

The GreenFi approach is founded on the recognition that credit systems are blind to natural resource overuse, and only by incorporating environmental requirements into credit terms can we create systemic incentives for environmental restoration rather than degradation.

CFA Webinar: Conservation Actions and Measurements Library (CAML)

Please join us on Friday February 19th at 11am Eastern Time to learn from Nick Salafsky about the Conservation Actions and Measures Library (CAML) under development by Foundations of Success.

CAML can help practitioners find generic theory of change pathways that serve as templates for their project’s specific conservation actions and strategies. It can also help managers and funders develop standard objectives and performance indicators to report on similar actions across a portfolio of actions. It is our hope that CAML will provide the basis for systematic learning about the conditions under which different actions work.

We will discuss how we could use the CAML framework to create theory of change pathways for conservation finance solutions as a tool to increase understanding and capacity to use these tools.

See this video for more information.

WHEN: 11am ET Friday, February 19th, 2021
WHERE: RSVP Below


Nick Salafsky is Executive Director and Co-Founder of FOS. In this role, he works with conservation practitioners across the United States and around the world to define clear and practical measures of conservation success, determine sound guiding principles for using conservation strategies, and develop the knowledge and skills of individuals and organizations to do good adaptive management. Nick is also product manager for the Miradi Adaptive Management Software program (www.miradi.org).


This webinar is hosted by the Marine and Coastal Finance Working Group of the Conservation Finance Alliance. Jos Hill will chair the discussion. If you have any questions, please contact Jos at jos@oceandesignlab.com

Practice Standards for Conservation Trust Funds Webinar Series - Programs and Monitoring & Evaluation

On Tuesday, February 16, please join us for the second webinar in our monthly series taking a deeper look at the 2020 edition of the Practice Standards for CTFs. February's webinar will focus on the Programs Core Area and the Monitoring & Evaluation Cross-Cutting Theme.

The webinar will be held at 11 am Eastern Time.

Zdenka Piskulich - President of RedLAC and Co-Chair of the CFA's Environmental Funds Working Group.
Amílcar Guzmán - Partner, Wolfs Company
Paulina Arroyo - Director, Adaptive Management and Evaluation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Pia Paaby - Terrestrial Conservation Manager, Asociación Costa Rica por Siempre

CFA Incubator Presentations - Kenyir for Life

https://rimba.ngo/

Kenyir For Life Project is an initiative led by Rimba (a Malaysian not-for-profit research group) that aims to generate alternative revenue streams from standing forests to expand protection of the 200,000 hectares (~500,000 acres) Kenyir watershed. The watershed is rich in biodiversity, harbouring at least 43 mammal species and more than 290 bird species. It also provides local communities with important ecosystem services such as the provision of drinking water, flood mitigation, erosion control, and fisheries resources. Since 2016, Rimba has engaged the Terengganu State government to improve forest management within the site and in 2018 the state demonstrated political will to forego logging revenue and gazetted 30,000 hectares Kenyir State Park. The next key step is to raise sustainable financing to manage the state park and expand protection to the greater watershed. To achieve this, Rimba created a new entity called Nature Based Solutions to channel investments from the private sector into the Kenyir watershed to create sustainable outcomes and assist companies meet their ESG/sustainability commitments. The team looks forward to sharing our current progress and engaging the CFA network to further strengthen our business case and discover new opportunities and ideas as well.


Event will be hosted by Reuben Clements, Tajang Jinggut and Sri Rao - Co-founders of Nature Based Solutions plc

CFA Incubator Presentations - Carbon Yield

As one of CFA’s incubator enterprises, Carbon Yield has been developing an innovative approach to marketing carbon stored within regenerative farms. Along with their partners at Hudson Carbon and Earthrise Alliance, Carbon Yield is excited to introduce the Hudson Carbon Marketplace that features place-based, natural offsets that tie climate action to specific farm parcels managed by exceptional carbon farmers. The marketplace helps differentiate high quality, regenerative agriculture offsets, earning farmers enough carbon revenue to overcome barriers to regenerative practices. The platform also integrates with e-commerce partners to associate retail carbon sales with climate positive products. Carbon Yield is excited to present the project as they prepare to launch with offsets generated on a 2,000 acre regenerative organic farm. As carbon market veterans, soil science researchers, and environmental entrepreneurs, their team is also looking forward to connecting with CFA’s members and allies for a broad conversation about how to overcome barriers to climate impact on working lands.

Claire Pluard and Sam Schiller, co-founders of Carbon Yield will host the webinar, alongside Matt Sheffer, Managing Director of Hudson Carbon, and Stephen Downs, Creative Director of Earthrise.

Practice Standards For Conservation Trust Funds webinar series - Overview

As a follow-up to the publication of the 2020 edition of the Practice Standards for Conservation Trust Funds, we are pleased to announce a series of monthly webinars exploring the Standards in more depth. Each webinar, to be held on the third Tuesday of the month, will focus on specific content of the 2020 edition (Core Areas and/or Cross-Cutting Themes). The webinars will be hosted by the CFA's Environmental Funds Working Group.

The first webinar, on Tuesday, 19 January at 11 am Eastern, will introduce key changes in the 2020 edition.

The upcoming webinar will include an overview on what is new in the 2020 edition of the Standards, a case study on the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund's use of the Standards, and time for a robust Q&A with the audience.

Meet the Speakers and Panelists:
Zdenka Piskulich - President of RedLAC and Co-Chair of the CFA's Environmental Funds Working Group.
Paquita Bath - Aligning Visions and co-author of the Practice Standards for Conservation Trust Funds, 2020 update.
Viviana Lujan - Conservation Finance Specialist, Wolfs Company and co-author of the Practice Standards for Conservation Trust Funds, 2020 update.
Karen MacDonald Gayle - Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF), will be sharing the CBF experience in using the Standards.
Vanessa Hartmann - KfW, will be sharing KfW's perspective on how the Practice Standards are useful from a donor viewpoint.

The Conservation Finance Alliance is excited to launch the Practice Standards for Conservation Trust Funds webinar series, where experts and authors will hig...

CFA WEBINAR: DEBT CONVERSIONS

Please join the us for a webinar on debt conversions (also known as debt for climate and nature swaps), a finance instrument that allows countries to reduce their national debt and reallocate funds for sustainable development and conservation projects.

Date: November 16th
Time: 11:00am EST
RSVP: Required

During the webinar, we will provide a brief overview of this instrument and some lessons learned from previous projects. We will also engage the authors of the recently released paper "Tackling the Triple Crisis: Using debt swaps to address debt, climate and nature loss post-COVID19" along with a Q&A session moderated by CFA's Executive Director, David Meyers. 

Miss the Webinar? View it below!

Please join the us for a webinar on debt conversions (also known as debt for climate and nature swaps), a finance instrument that allows countries to reduce ...

Meet our panelists

Paul Steele - International Institute for Environment and Development

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Paul Steele, chief economist for IIED, is focused on the linkages between environment, climate and poverty reduction and has more than 20 years' experience working for international organisations, including the United Nations Development Programme, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Sejal Patel - International Institute for Environment and Development

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Sejal Patel is an environmental economist who has worked in public policy analysis, climate finance and governance, and climate-resilient development. Her work concentrates on bridging international, national and local level climate policy responses and resourcing

Kevin Bender - The Nature Conservancy

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Kevin Bender is TNC’s Acting Deputy Managing Director, NatureVest. He leads TNC’s initiatives to finance conservation and climate adaptation via the structuring of sovereign debt conversions globally.

Launch of CFA's "Conservation Trust Funds 2020: Global Vision, Local Action"

CFA WEBINAR: LAUNCH OF THE CFA’S “CONSERVATION TRUST FUNDS 2020: GLOBAL VISION, LOCAL ACTION”

Date: November 12th
Time: 11am -12:30pm EST

Miss the Launch? Check it out here!

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.



Please join us on Thursday, November 12 for the long-awaited launch of "Conservation Trust Funds 2020: Global Vision, Local Action,"- a comprehensive analysis of Conservation Trust Funds (CTFs) over the past decade and into the future.
 
During this 90-minute webinar, authors Paquita Bath, Amilcar Guzmán-Valladares, Viviana Luján-Gallegos, and Katy Mathias will share key findings from the report.

Thierry Renaud from the MAVA Foundation and Bryna Griffin from BirdLife, donors to the project, will share some remarks.

David Meyers will moderate the panel discussion 
 

Meet our panelists:


Natalia Arango, Executive Director, Fondo Acción 
Scott Lampman, Director, Tropical Forest Conservation Act Secretariat, USAID
Sean Nazerali, Director of Innovative Financing, BIOFUND

This 10-year review was produced as a project of CFA's Environmental Funds Working Group, by a consulting team of Wolfs Company and Aligning Visions, in partnership with a highly engaged CFA Task Force. RedLAC and CAFÉ were key project partners.
 
The study was made possible through funding from Asociación Costa Rica por Siempre, Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM), Global Environment Facility (GEF) Secretariat, Master Capital LLC, MAVA Foundation, Trillion Trees (including BirdLife International, Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF-UK), and WWF-US.

CFA WEBINAR: VALUING NATURE CONSERVATION

Date: 10.27.2020

Please join us as we welcome Robert Wilson and Duko Hopman, co-authors of the newly released report “Valuing Nature Conservation”, produced by McKinsey & Company. During this webinar, hosted by the CFA, our guests will present the main findings of the report. The presentation will be followed by an audience Q&A session moderated by CFA ED David Meyers. 

The report builds on existing data sets and methodologies, as well as quantifying costs, benefits and other tradeoffs of conserving 30 percent of the planet by 2030.

We strongly encourage you to download and read the report - follow the link below!

Please view the recording below.

Please join us as we welcome Robert Wilson and Duko Hopman, co-authors of the newly released report "Valuing Nature Conservation", produced by McKinsey & Compan...

Investment Outlook for Environmental Funds in a Post-COVID World

INVESTMENT OUTLOOK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FUNDS IN A POST-COVID WORLD

As members and friends of the CFA and RedLAC networks, you are cordially invited to join a virtual panel discussion on the investment outlook for Environmental Funds in the time of COVID-19.  

July 21st, 11AM - 12PM EDT

In this moderated discussion, investment advisors from UBS, FINAD GmbH, and JP Morgan Chase will share their perspectives on the investment outlook for Environmental Funds (Conservation Trust Funds) in the context of the current COVID-19 global pandemic.   

 

Missed the webinar? View it below!

Sponsored by the CFA Environmental Funds Working Group CFA - RedLAC - The Nature Conservancy



Panelists:

Andrew B. Peake, CFA

Managing Director – UBS International, New York

 

Andrew joined UBS International in 2013 with over 30 years of experience in financial services, primarily in private wealth management, specializing in managed investment portfolios for ultra-high net worth clients and institutions.  His regional focus includes China, Europe, Latin America and the United States.

He began his career in 1989 in various portfolio management positions at Offitbank and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.  In 1994, Andrew was recruited by JP Morgan as a Senior Portfolio Manager, where he was responsible for $2B in discretionary global balanced portfolios.  He was also a member of the Trust and Investment Committee for Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of the Bahamas.  In 1998 Andrew was recruited by Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, which deals exclusively with that firm's ultra-high net worth clients.

Andrew has two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania - a BA Magna Cum Laude in Chinese History and East Asian Studies and a MA in East Asian Studies.  His Master’s thesis analyzed and discussed the future of Hong Kong.  He also earned a MBA in Finance from New York University and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.  Andrew is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and has lived, worked and traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America.  He is an avid sports enthusiast and competed for a place in the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team.  Andrew is actively involved in mentorship programs for students from Asia and is often asked to speak on cultural matters pertaining to China and US business relations. Additionally, Andrew serves on the Financial Advisor Advisory Council a group of Financial Advisors that represent the 6,000 Financial Advisors with senior management in the US. 


Christian Tury

Chief Investment Officer, Managing Director — FINAD GmbH, Vienna

As a manager in a multi family office, we are all-rounders with a very in-depth understanding of a wide range of financial operations. Assuming responsibility is an obligation, which is why we also invest lots of time in our younger colleagues.

I studied sociology and political science at the University of Vienna, and European Studies at the Danube University in Krems. I always wanted to work in the financial sector. I was approved as a student of business studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business when I encountered Warren Buffet in Omaha, Nebraska, for the first time. A speculative application to Chase Manhattan Bank made the dream reality. 




Juan Etinger

Managing Director, Global Head of Institutional Portfolio Solutions, J.P. Morgan

Juan Etinger is a Managing Director and Global Head of Institutional Portfolio Solutions. The group focuses on designing and managing single and multi-asset portfolios for endowments, foundations and institutional families.

Previously, Mr. Etinger was Senior Portfolio Manager overseeing the firm’s offshore Global Access Portfolios, a suite of global multi-asset investment funds that combine traditional asset classes with alternatives, structured investments and portfolio insurance strategies. Additionally, Mr. Etinger served as member of the investment team for the J.P. Morgan Access UCITS Funds, a multi-asset family of open-ended, offshore mutual funds tailored for international clients.

Mr. Etinger was a member of the J.P. Morgan Investment Strategy Team for over six years, responsible for development of investment strategy, including tactical and strategic asset allocation, for over $600 billion in client assets. In addition, he was a member of the Hedge Fund Advisory Council and due diligence’s Investment Review Committee.

Mr. Etinger holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (Booth), where he graduated with honors with a concentration in Quantitative Finance and Entrepreneurship. He also holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Buenos Aires. He lives in New York with his wife and three children.

Sponsored by the Environmental Funds Working Group

A partner event with:

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Coronavirus and the Conservation Finance Community

Missed the webinar? View the recording below

This is the third webinar in our Coronavirus and Conservation Finance webinar series. In this webinar we will dive into the benefits of Public Private Partne...

The next Coronavirus and the Conservation Finance Community online discussion will dive into the benefits of Public-Private Partnerships as a robust conservation finance mechanism in the time of Coronavirus. Join us as our panelists discuss the resiliency of Public-Private Partnerships in times of economic and social unrest. The call will involve presentations from the panelists for 30 minutes and then a Q&A session for the remainder of the hour.

The panelists for the discussion are as follows:

ERIC CAREY

Executive Director of the Bahamas National Trust (BNT)

ELEANOR CARTER

Deputy Director of the Chumbe Island Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Zanzibar, Tanzania; and Founder and Director of Sustainable Solutions International Consulting.

NICOLAS PASCAL

Director of Blue finance

About the Coronavirus and Conservation Finance Community

The CFA has recently introduced a new series of online discussions regarding the impact of COVID-19 on conservation finance, titled “Coronavirus and the Conservation Finance Community”.

To date, two online discussions have been held. The first discussion focused generally on CTF’s, with representatives from CAFÉ and RedLAC discussing how the pandemic was impacting operations, finance flows, and what the future could look like. The second discussion identified specific conservation finance tools that are viewed as most robust in the face of the crisis. A detailed recap of the two online discussions can be found here.

Following the taxonomy of conservation finance mechanisms outlined in the CFA white paper “Conservation Finance: A Framework”, three tools were identified: Public-Private Partnerships, Blended Finance, and Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Development.

The CFA would like to continue the discussion by holding three additional online calls, focusing on each of the finance mechanisms in turn. 



Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility

Please join us for another very insightful CFA Webinar, hosted by our Marine and Coastal Finance Working Group. The webinar will feature the Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility, and will focus on recently released report : Blue Infrastructure Finance: A new approach, integrating Nature-based Solutions for coastal resilience
Please find a short description of the paper, and make sure to RSVP to receive the link to the webinar.

All coastal and marine ecosystems are critical to human well-being and global biodiversity. But urban and rural infrastructure developments are having a heavy negative impact on these systems, and it is increasing over time.
 
Habitats like tidal mangrove forests, seagrasses and coral reefs, can help to make infrastructure investments better, more resilient and financially more attractive. These are known as Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Financial mechanisms are needed to support a shift away from infrastructure investments with unclear or negative impacts on nature towards those providing clean water and energy, flood and erosion control, etc. The developments must also preserve and enhance their coastal and marine environments.
 
We present new finance solutions integrating Blue Natural Capital, a critical tool for this transition.

Speakers: 
D. Herr (IUCN, Moderator)
S. Crooks (Silvestrum)
T. Thiele (Global Ocean Trust)


PiC (Preserve in Community)

Please join us for another very informative Webinar sponsored by the Innovation Working Group!

We are excited to host PiC, or Preserve in Community, a platform that provides technology to finance conservation projects in protected areas. 

Please find a short description of the technology platform below, and make sure to RSVP to receive the link to the presentation. 

"Our mission is to change the mindset of traditional conservation financing, with a B2B – B2C business model and digital tools to implement a financing strategy that includes corporations, local companies, NGOs, government and citizens.

PiC powers personalized matching platforms for more than 15 conservation NGOs, who together manage over 500.000 hectares of protected areas. PiC also allows companies to structure unique carbon footprint compensation programs and NGOs receive 100% of the financing.

At the end of 2017, PiC launched its new matching platform. The President of the Chilean Business Association, The Minister of the Environment of Chile and the Executive Director of WCS Chile hosted the event.

Learn more at: https://www.picparks.com/"

Please find the presentation in pdf format as well as a recording of the webinar below:

Please join us for another very informative webinar, this time discussing the conservation finance technology platform, PiC!

Coronavirus and the Conservation Finance Community

Join us for the launch of our Online Discussion Series

“Coronavirus and the Conservation Finance Community”,

Thank you to those who attended this first of many Online Discussions! Please find the recorded discussion below.

There is no doubt that COVID-19 has had far reaching impacts on the global stage. Ranging from the healthcare sector to the global economy, and from climate ...

The first discussion was held on Monday, April 20th at 10:00AM EST!

There is no doubt that COVID-19 has had far reaching impacts on the global stage. Ranging from the healthcare sector to the global economy, and from climate change to our own interpersonal daily lives as we adjust to this ‘new normal’, the impacts of the novel coronavirus will surely be felt for the coming years.

Members of the CFA have proposed an online discussion to explore how COVID-19 is impacting local, national and global efforts towards conservation finance – the first discussion will focus on Conservation Trust Funds but can cover related topics such as PA Finance.  Some of the questions we will discuss include:

- What are CTFs doing to adapt to the current situation? Is anyone using their “Emergency Funds” as cash to help out?

- What are the lessons we have already learned going forward? Are we learning new ways of working and of communicating?

- Can (or should) we re-allocate priorities to reinforce fragile health care delivery systems?

- With no tourist income, most social projects on hold, and normal fundraising interrupted, or being redirected, what options should we be preparing for?

- What can we see as opportunities (or silver-linings) in this crisis? Clearly the closing of wildlife markets in China is a big benefit but what else should we be pushing for?

             

Join us as we feature a panel of colleagues to discuss these and other related issues! 

Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT) with Angelique Pouponneau

The Conservation Finance Alliance’s Marine and Coastal Finance Working Group recently hosted a webinar with Angelique Pouponneau, the CEO of SeyCCAT as she discusses how the Seychelles leveraged a debt conversion and the world’s first Blue Bond to support the conservation of 30 percent of Seychelles' vast marine territory. Join us as SeyCCAT’s CEO discusses the structure of the Conservation Trust Fund, execution progress and key stakeholders involved in achieving its mission. Enormous interest is growing on the opportunities presented by both blue bonds and debt conversions especially for large ocean states such as Seychelles. The presentation is followed by an active Q&A section. 

A recording of the webinar is available below:

The CFA's Marine and Coastal Finance Working Group recently hosted a webinar with Angelique Pouponneau, the CEO of The Seychelles Conservation and Climate Ad...

Biodiversity and Your Business

Date: February 13, 2020

Hosted by The Land Accelerator, over 60 entrepreneurs joined for a conversation featuring ways to ensure your company is doing its best to respect and promote biodiversity. Participants included CFA Executive Director David Meyers, Willemijn De Iongh, manager at Commonland, and Joel Houdet, principal at Biodiversity Protocol. These experts shared techniques to incorporate biodiversity into business operations, how to consider biodiversity when planning land use change associated with expanding a business’s footprint, and how to collect and report on biodiversity impact figures to customers and investors.

One of the many takeaways is that there are many routes towards supporting biodiversity, and as entrepreneurs are trying to crack the code for creating a financially and environmentally sustainable business, each project around the globe will have a unique approach to building diversity.

A recording of the webinar is available below.

A research and policy agenda for establishing a “Blue Fund” for the conservation and restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems in Costa Rica

Date: January 15th, 2020

Time: 12pm EST

Costa Rica has ten times more marine area than terrestrial area, with a variety of marine and coastal ecosystems that provide valuable goods and services to society at many scales. Nevertheless, these ecosystems have been significantly degraded by unsustainable economic activities mainly because of the public good nature of marine and coastal ecosystem services. They are undervalued or not valued at all under current markets, and lack the appropriate institutions and mechanisms to internalize their value in order to better manage them. As a solution to this research and policy gap, the creation of the Blue Fund is proposed, a new PES scheme focused on marine and coastal ecosystems with the goal of conserving, enhancing and restoring them. To build this new scheme, a six-step process was designed.

A recording of the video is available below as well as on our Youtube Channel.

Please email the secretariat to request a copy of the powerpoint presentation (due to file size).

Results of 2018 Conservation Trust Fund Investment Survey

Katy Mathias, co-author of the Conservation Trust Investment Survey (CTIS) shared findings from the annual CTIS study for calendar year 2018. In addition, Katy shared some preliminary information from the forthcoming multi-year study of CTF investment data, drawing on the CTIS project's 13 years of data.

The recording is available on our Youtube Channel

Project Finance for Permanence in Peru

Date: November 12th, 2019

About 60% of Peruvian territory is covered by the Amazon rainforest, more than in any other country. With increasing pressures of deforestation, wildfires and land use change affecting the 38 protected areas in the Amazon region, the Peruvian government and conservation donors recognized the need for bold action to ensure the conservation of this important ecosystem. Partnering with the World Wildlife Fund, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and Andes Amazon Fund, the Peruvian government applied and adapted the Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) approach to ensure sustainable financing and permanent conservation of 16.7 million hectares of the Peruvian Amazon. The PFP approach built institutional capacity and leveraged the power of a single closing agreement to secure commitments for US$ 140 million from private and public sources for a shared conservation goal. Join Carolin Planitzer from WWF and Cindy Vergel from the Protected Areas National Service - SERNANP to discuss the lessons learned from developing this large-scale initiative.

The full recording of the presentation is available on our Youtube Channel.