Forest Investor Club
The world faces three interconnected crises: climate change, nature loss, and inequality. Forests and nature play a crucial role in addressing all three. The land use sector has the potential to contribute more than 20% of necessary climate mitigation by 2030. Despite this potential, there is chronic underinvestment in conservation, restoration, and sustainable land use. The Forest Investor Club was established to catalyze private sector finance and investment in these critical nature-based solutions.
The challenge
We need a rapid scale up of public and private investment financing towards forests and nature, with a $200+ billion annual expenditure gap for forest-based solutions (UNEP). Public and donor funding alone will not be enough. But the current investment landscape in emerging markets can be fragmented, difficult to navigate, and limited by the small number of viable investment opportunities. Investors may lack access to the necessary tools, knowledge and expertise in these markets to de-risk investments and address bankability and barriers to scaling.
The business case
To accelerate the pace, increase the scale, and expand the scope of forest and nature investments, collaboration is needed between companies, asset owners, asset managers, development finance institutions, and catalytic capital providers. The establishment of new partnerships can increase access to capital, de-risk investments, and design solutions to effectively connect capital to investments in forests and nature. This can lead to improved capacity among investors to source, screen, and invest in forest-related and sustainable land-use projects in these markets.
The solution
Launched by the U.S. Department of State and led by WBCSD, the Forest Investor Club is a network of public and private financial institutions, companies and investors committed to accelerating the deployment of capital into conservation, restoration, and the sustainable management of forests and nature. It catalyzes investments that reduce emissions and enhance carbon sequestration by supporting members through additional access to investment pipeline, facilitating complementary partnerships to de-risk and increase access to capital, and developing solutions to overcome investment barriers.
Project Members & Partners
