Traditionally, the main stakeholders in the conservation finance landscape have been governments, government-aligned institutions, land trusts and other nonprofits, philanthropists and philanthropic organizations.
Cconservation finance also offers opportunities for private investors, mainstream investment firms and corporations interested in a triple bottom line of serving people, planet and profit.
Conservation finance offers these groups many benefits:
- For traditional players, it offers the ability to achieve total portfolio activation and program innovation and education, and to meet donor attitudes and interests
- For private investors, conservation finance can increase asset quality, develop long-term sustainable returns, tap into growth in emerging markets, diversify and hedge portfolios, utilize tax advantages or credits, and avoid or reduce costs
While nature is priceless and invaluable, there are many ecosystem services that have monetary value to various stakeholders, such as carbon sequestration or flood risk mitigation. Monetizing these services allows stakeholders to create mechanisms and products to measure, finance and promote conservation initiatives, based on the outcomes they provide. High potential outcome areas include:
- Indigenous-led or -stewarded conservation in which stewards are compensated for their conservation efforts
- Blended social and environmental outcomes that are relevant to other communities, such as nature-based tourism communities, cities and peri-urban areas
- Offsets and credits supported by natural capital stocks other than carbon, such as biodiversity or nutrient credits Conservation finance models that provide the mechanisms to monetize ecosystem services include credits and offsets, outcome-based models, green bonds and other alternative investments.
2020 report that showcases wider array of innovative financial approaches to conservation in order to attract other sources of capital in Canada, much of this from the private sector.