Human activities are causing unprecedented and accelerating global loss of biodiversity. There is a huge global movement for protection of biodiversity which seems only to grow and cannot be ignored. EU has proposed a biodiversity strategy for 2030 in which one of the core actions is protecting at least 30% of land area and launching an EU nature restoration plan. On the 12th of January 2021, a new “High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People” was launched at One Planet Summit organized by UN. The 50-state coalition committed to protecting 30% of land and seas world-wide by 2030.
There is a lot of pressure on forest owners to protect and conserve the biodiversity in their forests. Forest owners are protesting trying to show that they already contribute to biodiversity, carbon sequestration and other eco-system services. If 30% of all forests are to be protected, where from and how will the forest owner be compensated for the loss of income and property?
To slow and stop the loss of biodiversity, we must fundamentally rethink our relationship with nature and transform our economic models and market systems. In recent years, green finance has grown from a niche investment opportunity to one that is attracting considerable attention from investors and governments around the world. The growth of this field has been driven by an accumulation of evidence showing that investments in sustainable financial products can meet, and in many cases exceed, the risk-return expectations of investors and the market returns of comparable investments not viewed as sustainable.
There are a lot of interesting opportunities out there.
Recommended reading: “Financing Nature – Closing the global biodiversity financing gap” (Deutz, A., Heal, G. M., Niu, R., Swanson, E., Townshend, T., Zhu, L., Delmar, A., Meghji, A., Sethi, S. A., and Tobin-de la Puente, J. 2020. Financing Nature: Closing the global biodiversity financing gap. The Paulson Institute, The Nature Conservancy, and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. ).
