From Ideas to Investment: What’s Next for Innovative Finance for Nature?

During Climate Week NYC, Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA), Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC), IUCN, and Morrison Foerster brought together practitioners, investors, conservation leaders, entrepreneurs, researchers, and partners to examine where innovative and private finance for nature stands today —and what is needed to increase its reach and impact.

The event, “What’s Next in Innovative Finance for Nature? From Ideas to Investment”, provided opportunities ahead and the practical work required to mobilize more finance for nature.

The discussions focused on some of the practical requirements for moving conservation finance solutions forward: building credible projects, strengthening the evidence behind them, developing appropriate financial structures, and connecting promising solutions with the capital and expertise needed to advance them.

Fireside Chat with Tanja Havemann: The State of Innovative Finance for Nature Opportunities and Challenges.

A deep dive with the Founder and Director of Clarmondial into sustainable agriculture finance and why sustainable agriculture is essential for conservation. 

Panel: The State of Private Finance for Nature: What's Working, Where Capital is Still Hesitant, and What the Next Five Years Could Bring

Genevieve Bennett shared Forest Trends’ latest research on private investment in nature, followed by a panel discussion with Tracy Farrell, Kurt Holle, Genevieve, and Kevin Webb on the opportunities and challenges shaping private finance for nature.

This dialogue connected the practical experience of developing conservation finance projects with a broader discussion about the conditions needed to mobilize additional private capital for nature.

CFA Incubator – Cohort 4

The CFA Incubator Showcase brought these conversations to life. Tanja Havemann, Harrison Carter, Patti Chu, Patrick Brown and David Meyers shared approaches from across the Incubator portfolio, while members of our mentor community contributed perspectives from their experience supporting conservation finance projects.

The exchange between presenters and participants reinforced the value of creating space for projects to receive candid feedback, make new connections, and strengthen their approaches.

The CFA Incubator is supported by Milkywire's Nature Transformation Fund, in collaboration with Klarna.

The CFA and CPIC would like to thank all of our partners for the CFA Incubator and this event: IUCN, Outrigger Impact, BNP Paribas, CI Ventures, Milkywire, Morrison Foerster, and Conservation Strategy Fund.

What's Next in Innovative Finance for Nature? From Ideas to Investment

A New York Climate Week 2026 event, hosted by Conservation Finance Alliance, Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation, IUCN, and Morrison Foerster

📅 Thursday, 24 September 2026, ⏰ 3:00–6:00pm

Nature underpins the global economy, yet almost none of its value shows up directly on financial statements. Innovative finance solutions and a pipeline of investable projects are needed to bring Nature into the markets and to help markets align with Nature's needs.

Join the Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) and the Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for a late afternoon event and networking that brings leading voices in private and innovative finance together for a deep dive and active engagement. The event convenes investors, dealmakers, and visionaries to share the latest innovations, watch live pitches for nature-finance deals, and discuss how to scale and replicate nature finance.

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Meet the Speakers

Panel -  The state of private finance for nature: what's working, where capital is still hesitant, and what the next five years could bring

Tracy Farrell - Moderator 

Director, North American Region, IUCN | CEO, IUCN-US

Tracy Farrell is Director of IUCN’s North American Region and CEO of IUCN-US. At the forefront of IUCN’s North American and global conservation efforts, her dual role encompasses steering policy work, engaging a membership network of nearly 200 organizations and government agencies, leading an international staff team of more than 40 people, and strengthening IUCN’s conservation, policy, and fundraising mission across the United States and Canada. With a focus on executive management, she is accountable for the financial, administrative, fundraising, and human resources functions of IUCN in North America and IUCN-US, ensuring the sustainability, alignment, and implementation of a $150 million portfolio.

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Christopher Vangerven

Sustainability, Climate & Nature Advisor, NASDAQ

Christopher Vangerven is an ESG professional focused on the intersection of corporate strategy, investor expectations, governance, and emerging sustainability risks. At Nasdaq, he advises companies on ESG, climate, and nature-related risks, with experience spanning fundamental company research, board and governance analysis, proxy and disclosure reviews, peer benchmarking, and institutional investor research. He has analyzed the priorities of more than 100 institutional investors and regularly translates complex analysis into practical recommendations for senior executives. Earlier in his career, Christopher gained investment research experience at Redburn Atlantic, conducting company and sector analysis and engaging with investor relations, operational, and sustainability leaders. He holds an MSc in Economics and Policy of Energy and the Environment from UCL and the CFA Certificate in Impact Investing.

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Kurt Holle

Country Director - Peru  World Wildlife Fund

Kurt Holle is WWF Peru’s Country Director and leader of WWF’s Amazon Coordination Unit. He is a forestry engineer from La Molina Agrarian University with specializations in tourism management, leadership, and marketing, among others. For over 25 years he has worked to bring together biodiversity conservation and business under a vision of sustainability that generates benefits for local communities. Kurt has extensive experience as a consultant in sustainable business, product development, and marketing, having worked with organizations such as the Moore Foundation, Swisscontact, and Nature Services Peru.

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Genevieve Bennett

Senior Advisor, Forest Trends

Genevieve Bennett is Senior Advisor at Forest Trends, where she leads nature and carbon finance market intelligence and strategy. She is a recognized expert in translating ecological and natural capital data into actionable intelligence for asset managers and capital providers, with expertise spanning natural capital valuation, market design, and biodiversity credit development. She has published in Nature Sustainability and Science, among others. She is a CAIA Charterholder and holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Kevin Webb 

Co-Founder & Managing Director, Superorganism 

Kevin Webb is an early-stage venture capitalist and angel investor with more than a decade of experience investing in emerging companies. He previously helped found and run the Webb Investment Network, where he identified companies including Verkada, Turo, and Ironclad. He has spoken at the Smithsonian, Salesforce Climate Innovation Summit, Bloom, and the North American Congress of Conservation Biology, and has published in State of the Planet, Rewilding, and Make Magazine. He holds an MS in Sustainability Science from Columbia University and a degree in Human Biology from Stanford University.

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The CFA Incubator Showcase, a first look at investment-ready deals and concepts.

David Meyers- Moderator 

CFA Executive Director  | Nature’s Sovereign Wealth Fund

David Meyers is an environmental finance expert and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in sustainability, environmental economics, conservation, and business strategy. He has launched and managed several companies and worked in 46 countries, including more than a decade in Madagascar. He holds a doctorate from Duke University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Nature’s Sovereign Wealth Fund seeks to develop a sovereign-scale fund with Nature as the owner and manager, creating a permanent source of funding for conservation and giving Nature a market position with the ability to invest, make markets, and hold governance weight comparable to major asset managers and sovereign wealth funds.

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Tanja Havemann 

Director/Founder Clarmondial AG |Mount Kenya Landscape Endowment

Tanja Havemann is the Founder and Director of Clarmondial, an independent advisory firm developing innovative and practical financing solutions for nature. She has more than 20 years of experience in sustainable finance and has worked with companies, investors, foundations, governments, NGOs, and international organizations to design and implement solutions to environmental challenges.
The Mount Kenya Landscape Endowment is a locally anchored financing mechanism designed to convert long-term capital into predictable annual funding for conservation and climate resilience. Investment returns will support community micro-grants, credit guarantees for small businesses, and performance-based incentives for regenerative agriculture and biodiversity protection.

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Harrison Carter

University of Oxford - Human Wildlife Coexistence (DPhil) | Lion Impact Bond 

Harrison Carter is a researcher with the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit and Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science. With a background in finance and management consulting, his work explores how economic systems and conservation finance can better incentivize coexistence between people and wildlife. He also leads WildCRU’s Incentivising Conservation research group.

The Lion Impact Bond is an outcome-based conservation finance mechanism designed to turn human-wildlife conflict into coexistence through a pay-for-success model. Working with pastoralist communities in Tanzania’s Selous-Nyerere landscape, it links community payments to measurable conservation outcomes and wildlife-friendly practices, with an initial $1.5–2 million pilot focused on large carnivore coexistence.

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Patricia Chu 

Managing Partner at Mana Impact | Mana Blue Planet Fund

Patricia “Patti” Chu is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Mana Impact, where she leads strategy, deal sourcing and evaluation, and project design and management. With a background in economics and finance, her experience spans financial institutions, foundations, corporations, and nonprofits, including the World Bank, Citigroup, and the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network.
The Mana Blue Planet Fund seeks to address the growth-stage financing gap facing nature-positive enterprises and conservation projects in Asia. Using flexible debt terms and blended-finance tools, the Fund aims to help enterprises grow, deepen their impact, and access follow-on capital, with plans to deploy $5 million across 15–20 pilot investments in 2026–2027.

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Patrick Brown 

Executive Director  Equal Right | Climate Commons Fund

Patrick Brown is Executive Director of Equal Right, where he works at the intersection of climate justice, economic equity, and Universal Basic Income. He leads a global team working across research, advocacy, and cash-transfer projects in Kenya, Colombia, Tuvalu, and Brazil. He is a Churchill Fellow, TEDx speaker, and holds a PhD in Politics.
The Climate Commons Fund is an investment fund inspired by sovereign wealth fund models that uses investment returns to provide a universal “Climate Dividend” to populations in designated conservation areas. The model links the dividend to ecological performance at the landscape level, aiming to distribute conservation benefits equitably while devolving wealth and decision-making to local communities.

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The CFA Incubator is supported by Milkywire's Nature Transformation Fund, in collaboration with Klarna.

The CFA and CPIC would like to thank all of our partners for the CFA Incubator and this event:

The CFA Incubator Program is Going Strong

With 3 months completed of the 4th round of the CFA Incubator, the 16 teams are well underway in refining their strategies and business plans. Many thanks to our great partners, mentors, experts, and coaches.

Common Themes Across Projects and their Progress

• Focus broad ideas into minimum viable products.

• Testing assumptions through customer discovery and stakeholder interviews.

• Exploring philanthropic versus investor-focused funding.

• Developing stronger investment cases.

• Learning from one another's finance mechanisms, especially around endowments, blended finance, nature credits, and outcome-based finance.

Shared Cohort Learning

Many teams asked the cohort for advice on similar issues, including:

• Making conservation finance attractive to corporations, resorts and tourism sector partners.

• Identifying outcome buyers.

• Managing demand risk in new environmental markets.

• Designing sustainable endowment structures.

• Structuring blended finance vehicles.

Stay tuned for upcoming announcements on this cohort! The CFA Incubator is financed by Milkywire's Nature Transformation Fund with support from Klarna.

Posted: July 7, 2026

Presentation Webinars from CFA Incubator Cohort 3

CFA and OCTO are hosting a series of webinars

The Webinar Series features five (5) webinars each with two projects per session that present the main conclusions and finance solutions developed by the 10 projects of CFA Incubator Cohort 3 during 2025.

The Webinar series, co-hosted with OCTO, is part of the CFA Incubator, supported by Milkywire’s Nature Transformation Fund, in collaboration with Klarna.

Meet the Cohort 3

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🌱 Webinar 1: Making Conservation Investable: Impact Bonds for People and Nature

🎣 The Salmon Impact Bond

Presented by Ross Dixon & Audrey Maria Popa (Coast Funds) and Raven Walkus (Wuikinuxv First Nation).
An Indigenous-led initiative advancing salmon habitat restoration and community development in Canada.

🔹 Karukinka’s Impact Bond and Sustainable Finance (WCS Chile)
Presented by Melissa Carmody (WCS Chile)
A diversified sustainable finance approach supporting the conservation of Karukinka Park in Tierra del Fuego, Chile.

📅 Tuesday, January 20 - ⏰ 11 am EST | 8 am PST | 1 pm CLST | 4 pm UTC | 4 pm GMT

👉 Watch the recording

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🌊 Webinar 2: Financing the Sustainable Transition of Small-Scale Fisheries

🐟 Marine Conservation Incentives
Presented by Hollie Booth (University of Oxford & Kebersamaan Untuk Lautan)
A scalable, evidence-based incentive model being piloted in Indonesia to protect marine biodiversity while safeguarding the livelihoods and wellbeing of coastal communities.

🔹 BlueMove Fund for Small-Scale Fisheries in Africa
Presented by Camille Richer and Yousr Benfadhel (BlueMove / BlueSeeds)
A new nature-positive fund combining technical assistance and concessional finance to support sustainable fishing, regenerative blue economy activities, and MPAs in Tunisia and Senegal.

📅 Thursday, January 22 - ⏰ 9 am EST | 6 am PST | 2 pm UTC | 3 pm CET | 10 pm WITA

👉 Watch the recording

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🌍 Webinar 3: Sustainable Finance in Africa: Tourism and Blended Finance Solutions

✈️ Global Green Visa®
Presented by Bhalin Singh (Prajna Ventures)
An innovative mechanism that embeds a transparent conservation contribution into national e-visa systems—transforming tourism into a consistent, scalable revenue stream for biodiversity.

🌿 Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA) Infrastructure Finance Facility
Presented by Onkemetse Nteta (IUCN)
A regional blended finance facility designed to mobilize long-term funding for conservation and infrastructure across TFCAs in Southern Africa.

📅 Monday, January 26 - ⏰ 9 am EST | 6 am PST | 2 pm UTC | 3 pm CET | 4 pm CAT/SAST

👉 Watch the recording

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🌍 Webinar 4: Trust Funds as Engines for Nature Finance: Debt Conversion in Cuba and a Biodiversity and Climate Fund in Madagascar and Africa

🔹 Debt Conversion for Nature and a Conservation Trust Fund in Cuba
Presented by Fernando Bretos (Cresta Coastal Network)
A pioneering effort to develop Cuba’s first debt conversion for nature and an independent Conservation Trust Fund, channeling fiscal savings into biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, and sustainable fisheries.

🔹 Mitsiry Biodiversity and Climate Technical Assistance Facility
Presented by Blanda Andrimamy & Lea Méléard (Miarakap)
A blended finance approach combining a $50M investment fund with a dedicated technical assistance facility to support biodiversity-positive enterprises in Madagascar and Eastern & Southern Africa.

📅 Thursday, February 5 - ⏰ 9 am EST | 6 am PST | 2 pm UTC | 5 pm EAT

👉 Watch the recording

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🌍 Webinar 5: Making Conservation Enterprises Investable: Low-Impact Scallop Harvesting and Improving Biodiversity Outcome Tracking

🐚 Finance Solutions for Sustainable Scallop Fisheries
Presented by Tom Hooper (Fishtek Marine Ltd)
An innovative, low-impact method for harvesting scallops using pots as an alternative to damaging dredging.

🦜 The BirdsPlus Index
Presented by Eliot Miller (American Bird Conservancy)
A science-based tool to measure, report, and validate biodiversity outcomes for conservation finance, impact investing, and nature-positive action.

📅 Thursday, February 12 - ⏰ 12 pm EST | 9 am PST | 5 pm UTC | 5 pm GMT | 6 pm CET

👉 Watch the recording

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Announcing the 2025 CFA Incubator Cohort!

Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) is proud to introduce the 10 outstanding projects selected for Round 3 of the CFA Incubator — a program that identifies, supports, and promotes innovative solutions to conservation finance challenges with high-impact potential.

After a rigorous three-stage review process involving expert judges from leading conservation and finance institutions, we are thrilled to welcome ten projects to our 2025 cohort. Five projects will receive grants of $25,000, while all projects will benefit from mentorship, technical assistance, and global exposure through CFA’s network. This third round of the CFA Incubator is being supported by the Nature Transformation Fund run by Milkywire, in collaboration with Klarna.

Selected for Grant Funding and Incubation

• The Salmon Impact Bond. A nature bond model supporting Indigenous-led salmon habitat restoration and community development in Wuikinuxv territory. Team: Eddy Adra, Tamara Isaak, Ross Dixon, Audrey Popa, Coast Funds, Canada; Danielle Shaw, Andra Forney, Wuikinuxv First Nation.

• ABC BirdsPlus Index. Developing a business strategy for the BirdPlus Index, a biodiversity monitoring tool leveraging bird sound recognition and AI to measure biodiversity and ecosystem health. Team: Corey Martignetti, Holly Robertson, and Eliot Miller, American Bird Conservancy, USA.

• Finance for incentive-based marine conservation in small-scale fisheries. Establishing and scaling sustainable finance to conserve marine megafauna (e.g., sharks, rays, turtles) through expanding a unique incentive-based program that  delivers positive outcomes for biodiversity and people in coastal communities. Lead: Hollie Booth, University Of Oxford & Kebersamaan Untuk Lautanuk, Indonesia/UK.

• Global Green Visa®️. Developing a national-level tourism levy linked to an impact bond to finance nature conservation. Team: Bhalin Singh and Cheryl Collins, Prajna Ventures, Rwanda/Luxembourg.

• Finance for Small Scale Fisheries in Africa. Innovative provision of technical assistance and microcredits to support positive outcomes for biodiversity and people in coastal communities in Africa. Team: Camille Richer, BlueMove; Thomas Binet, BlueSeeds, Tunisia & Senegal.

Selected for Incubation 

• Karukinka’s Impact Bond. Finance for peatland and forest protection in Karukinka Natural Park, Patagonia, through an outcome-based bond. Team: Melissa Carmody Lobo and Cristóbal Arredondo, WCS, Chile.

• Caribbean Debt Conversion. Exploring a debt conversion to unlock sustainable conservation finance in Cuba. Team: Fernando Bretos & Jim Tolisano, Cresta Coastal Network; Mark J. Spalding, the Ocean Foundation; Ulises Fernandez, CITMA, Cuba. 

• Finance solutions for sustainable scallop fisheries. Developing metrics and an associated finance system to transform scallop fisheries. Lead. Tom Hooper, Fishtek Marine LTD, UK.

• Mitsiry Biodiversity and Climate Trust Fund. Leveraging blended finance and technical assistance to grow biodiversity-focused small and medium-sized enterprises. Team: Koloina Ramaromandray, Lea Meleard & Emmanuel Cotsoyannis, Mirakap; Madagascar and Eastern & Southern Africa.

• Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA) Infrastructure Impact Bond – A scalable approach to fund infrastructure in TFCAs. Lead: Onkemetse Nteta, IUCN, South Africa.

These projects showcase bold thinking where finance meets nature. Through approaches such as bonds, trust funds, credits, AI applications, and blended finance, they’re working to deliver tangible conservation outcomes and long-term sustainability. Together, they reflect the growing momentum in conservation finance, and we look forward to championing their progress and sharing their insights with our broader global network in the year ahead.

The Incubation period will run from May through February 2026, offering tailored support and mentorship to advance these ideas towards implementation. The CFA Incubator will hold a series of webinars presenting these ideas over the course of the incubation and will host presentations at global conferences. 

This year’s open call for proposals attracted 73 applications from 37 countries, reflecting a global interest in conservation finance innovation. Proposals were received from every major region: Africa had the most submissions, followed by Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Europe, the Pacific, and the Middle East. Approximately 25% of proposals were led by women, and over 40% of teams included women in key roles, signaling encouraging trends in inclusion and diversity across the sector. 

Recording of the first CFA Incubator Information Webinar is now available

The Conservation Finance Alliance Incubator seeks to identify, support and promote innovative ideas and solutions to conservation finance challenges that have significant positive conservation impacts. Innovation is essential to identify and develop conservation finance solutions and is especially urgent given the current rates of biodiversity loss. This virtual incubator will identify and support five concurrent projects for incubation for periods of 9 to 12 months. Support will be in the form of grants and mentorship by CFA members.

This info session answers questions posed by members and gives further information on the Incubator program.