New CPIC Conservation Investment Blueprints: A look a success cases of channeling private finance into agriculture and forestry projects

The business case for economic agents to address conservation and its reciprocal relationship with biodiversity is gaining more and more followers. To transform the approach of the business and financial sectors to nature decision-making, it is imperative to showcase successful investments as inspiring examples.

Conservation investment projects are models of financial transaction structures designed to facilitate replicable investments in priority conservation projects. These models allow financial institutions seeking a positive impact on biodiversity through conservation projects to better understand existing investment frameworks.

The Finance team of Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, which is part of the consortium of the European EU Horizon SUSTAIN project, has published four new models focused on sustainable agriculture and forest landscapes. In them, the Coalition for Private Investment Conservation (CPIC) describes the investment and operating model of each project, its impact measurement practices and its possibilities for scaling up and replication. They serve as practical resources for conservation finance stakeholders, including investors, financial institutions, project promoters and NGOs, and offer ideas on innovative approaches to channel private funding towards priority conservation projects.

The preliminary projects are:

• "Transforming degraded land into productive forests through blended finance in Brazil".

• 'Channeling private finance into habitat banking schemes in England'.

• "Impact investment unlocking equity for scaling the use of agricultural by-products for sustainable livelihoods"

• 'Channelling private finance into nature rewilding projects'.