Private capital investments in conservation have taken off since 2013
Over the past decade, banks, fund managers, and others funneled more than $8 billion into investments aimed at delivering measurable environmental benefits as much as financial returns, according to a new report prepared by the NGO Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace initiative. The findings of the report suggest that “conservation investing” — which focuses on sustainable forestry, agriculture, fisheries, habitat, and water initiatives — is emerging as a key component of so-called “impact investment” strategies, and that these emerging asset classes represent a valuable addition to portfolios. Conservation investing has undergone a period of dramatic growth over the past two years, Forest Trends found, as the total amount of private capital committed to conservation efforts since 2004 climbed 62 percent after 2013, from $5.1 billion to $8.2 billion.
