CONSERVATION PHILANTHROPY AND FINANCE FOR PROTECTED AREAS
December 9th, 2022 at 3:30pm ET
Recent financial innovations including blended finance have given rise to new possibilities for sustaining long-term conservation of forested areas for Amazonian wildlife and communities. There are trillions of dollars that have pledged to go to work for nature. Over $2 trillion has been issued through green bonds since the first pioneering instrument came online 15 years ago. Recent financial innovation has unlocked unprecedented opportunities to mobilize nature conservation finance at the scale needed to prevent an Amazon dieback. Yet, there is massive incongruence with what large investors are seeking and what indigenous and local communities need or could offer as investable deals. Join us to discuss the leading edge of conservation finance for Amazonian landscapes, including natural asset companies, wild harvest bonds, and project finance for permanence. We will explore pathways to use conservation philanthropy as an integral component of new financial products that could be securitized by long-term purchase contracts of forest products, and other approaches. How can the global community mobilize effective conservation finance at scale while ensuring indigenous rights and agency?
David Meyers
Conservation Finance Alliance
David Meyers is an environmental finance expert and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in sustainability, business strategy and management, environmental economics, international conservation and development, environmental impact assessment, training, education and research in ecology and evolution. David has launched and managed various companies including a financial services company providing online marketplaces for impact investing and environmental assets, a triple-bottom-line bamboo-flooring manufacturer in Madagascar, and a technology incubator. David has spent well over a decade in Madagascar and has worked in 46 countries. In Madagascar, he helped the country plan and execute a tripling of the area under conservation, including establishing the Makira Natural Park 370,000 hectare protected area using REDD+ financing. He holds a Doctorate in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy from Duke University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Manoel Serrao Borges de Sampaio
FUNBIO
Manoel is Superintendent of Programs at the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (FUNBIO), an innovative financial mechanism to drive the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Brazil. Active since 1996, FUNBIO was created by representatives from the federal government, academia, civil society and business on the strength of a $20 million donation from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). For the last 25 years FUNBIO has been a strategic partner of these sectors and has supported 411 projects that benefited 305 institutions across all of Brazil’s biomes.
At FUNBIO, Manoel has developed numerous revolving conversions aimed at sustainable development and financing of protected areas and forest restoration programs (e.g., Rio de Janeiro Atlantic Forest Fund, Surui Carbon Fund, Juruti Fund with Alcoa, and ARPA Transition Fund). He is responsible for the ARPA conservation program; Copaíbas sustainable development; Terrestrial GEF and the Mata Atlântica Program restoration activities; and jurisdictional REDD+ projects REM/MT, Copaíbas, and Floresta Viva Programs, aimed at large-scale forest restoration.
Pilar Barrera Rey
The Nature Conservancy / Enduring Earth
Pilar Barrera Rey is Global Director of Durable Protection Strategies. In this role, Pilar is responsible for advancing Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) approaches and leading multi-stakeholder, participatory conservation and financial planning to ensure that terrestrial, freshwater and marine conservation can endure in perpetuity.
For more than 20 years, she has worked for conservation organizations: from a local NGO in her native Colombia to The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in both Colombia and the U.S. Prior to her return to The Nature Conservancy, she worked with a multilateral fund—the Global Environment Facility (GEF)—in Washington, D.C., where she led stakeholder engagement and the GEF Small Grants Programme.
Mahlette Betre
Intrinsic Exchange Group
Mahlette Betre is a conservation and development professional based in Washington, DC. She currently leads environmental and social performance for a start-up enterprise, the Intrinsic Value Exchange, an online stock exchange designed to value, price, and monetize natural assets. Mahlette has held positions with RESOLVE, the World Bank, and Conservation International, working in the areas of biodiversity protection, climate change mitigation & adaptation, and conflict resolution. She has led strategic partnerships with major corporations on a range of sustainability initiatives, with specialized knowledge of the extractive industries.
Matthias Pitkowitz
EQX Biome
Biodiversity fintech entrepreneur focused on mobilizing financial markets (incl. carbon and biodiversity credit markets) towards our mission of protecting the world’s remaining biodiversity-rich regions. Prior to EQX, Matthias was a sixth year corporate lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, consistently ranked as the top US law firm for M&A and capital markets matters. Matthias has executed more than $72bn worth of M&A and capital markets transactions for clients including Dell, IBM, Ferrari, Mylan, INEOS, Johnson & Johnson, American Express, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, among others. He is a respected author and speaker on long-termism, sustainability and capital markets, and has addressed audiences at the Aspen Institute, FCLT’s Conference on Long-Termism; Columbia University, Fordham Business School, and others. By age 23, Matthias had obtained three law degrees – a Master of Laws from Columbia Law School, a PhD in corporate law from the University of Vienna and a JD degree from the University of Vienna, each with Honors.
Ruth Andrade
Lush
Born in the bioregion of the Brazilian Atlantic Moist Forests, Ruth grew up in a concrete jungle, witnessing first hand the destruction of the natural environment. This prompted an early interest in environmental issues, nurtured a deep love for the rainforest and fueled great passion for driving change. She considers herself a systems activist, identifying key nodal interventions in systems to support the transition to regenerative cultures. She has been co-creating Lush’s environmental strategy since 2004 and supports the business to leave the world Lusher than we found it. Ruth has a masters in Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies. She is a trustee and co-founder of Re.Alliance, a collective of practitioners bringing regenerative design to the humanitarian and development sectors, and a co-creator of Regenerosity, an initiative with a mission to flow resources to grassroots regenerative projects.
Caio Sergio de Mello Sarhan
Natura
Caio graduated in Business Administration from FGV-SP with an MBA from Duke University-US. He has extensive experience in financial structuring, investments, and business management at different stages of maturity, having gone through groups such as Patria Investimentos, ALL-Logística (now Rumo, Cosan Group) and Omega Energia. At Natura he is Finance Business
Partner, supporting the development of the Company’s Sustainability and Innovation projects.
Natura & Co is a Brazilian global personal care cosmetics group headquartered in São Paulo. The Natura & Co Group currently includes Natura Cosméticos, Aesop, The Body Shop and Avon Products. The Group is present in 73 countries
James Chu
John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc.
James Chu works at John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. as Supplier Quality Manager. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. is a processor and distributor of trees nuts and peanuts in the United States. These nuts are sold under a range of private labels and brand names, including under the Fisher, Orchard Valley Harvest and Sunshine Country brand names. The Company also markets and distributes, and in most cases manufacture or process, a diverse product line of food and snack products, including peanut butter, almond butter, candy and confection, natural snacks and trail mixes, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, corn snacks, sesame sticks and other sesame snack products under private labels and brand names.
