In this episode, we're joined by Harvey Locke who has been an adviser to governments on conservation for decades, as well as currently holding the position of Vice Chair for Nature Positive for the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. Over the last 18 months, Harvey has been bringing experts together around the world to develop some big and bold financial solutions to solve our wicked problem of biodiversity loss. 

In this episode, we dive into the U.S. mitigation banking market as part of our ongoing exploration of compliance models and regulated markets. Helen Avery is joined by Adam Davis, co-founder and managing partner of Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP), a private equity firm that has raised over $1 billion and restored more than 53,000 acres of wetlands and 260 miles of streams across the U.S. since 2007.

Adam shares an in-depth look at what’s actually happening on the ground. He walks us through how EIP set up mitigation banks - from identifying suitable locations to developing and selling credits. Adam also shares key insights into investor appetite, and what’s driving increased interest in nature-based investment opportunities.

The episode also explores what has enabled the U.S. mitigation banking market to scale as it has, with some of the key lessons learned, why it remains attractive to investors, and how other countries could replicate its success. 

In this episode, we’re joined by Tim Male, Founder and Executive Director of the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), to dive into U.S. mitigation banking and the broader role of regulatory markets. The U.S. is home to the one of the world’s largest regulatory markets, where billions of private-sector dollars are flowing into nature restoration. In this episode we talk about why these models and markets are essential for getting capital moving towards nature.

For listeners who want to learn more about U.S. mitigation banking, check out the R4N Guidebook, co-written with EPIC. It explores how the model was created, the challenges it faces, and key lessons learned along the way.

In this episode Helen Avery is joined by Thomas Pickford, UK Partnerships and Policy Lead at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Glenn Anderson, Co-Founder and Strategy Lead at the Wendling Beck - a landscape scale project which has been selling Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units in the UK.

In this episode they talk about the BNG market, what it is, how it works and the implications for the EU. They also discuss what this looks like for farmers and land mangers who are engaging with BNG.

For those interested in the Wendling Beck Project’s development, the GFI Hive has also written a detailed set of case studies, all found on the GFI Hive Investment Readiness Toolkit: https://hive.greenfinanceinstitute.com/gfihive/toolkit/projects/wendling-beck/

In this episode Emily McKenzie joins us on Financing Nature to share how we move from disclosures into action. She shares where the TNFD is to-date on working with businesses and financial institutions around the world, differences in regional approaches, transition plans and the road to investment.

In this episode, Helen Avery speaks with Tom Curtis, founding partner at 3Keel and Landscape Enterprise Networks about the LENs model that brings together businesses to pay farmers for environmental outcomes across a shared landscape.

In this episode, Vanessa Garcia at Terrassos shares about mitigation banking in Colombia and their model of establishing habitat banks to provide biodiversity units into that market.

In this fourth episode, Helen Avery is joined by Michal Zrust, Founder and CEO of Lestari Capital to discuss the Rimba Collective, a financial mechanism that supports companies to finance a portfolio of forest conservation and restoration projects across Southeast Asia. Rimba Collective members make payments that are proportionally linked to the amount of palm oil procured. In return for funding the projects, participating companies can claim against the environmental outcomes for their sustainability commitments and supply chain resilience.

In this third episode, Helen Avery is joined by Nicolas Pascal, Founder of Blue Alliance to explore its innovative model that creates local reef-positive business rooted in the blue economy. These social enterprises then direct a portion of their profits toward the management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) – helping MPAs to become financially self-sustaining.

In this second episode, Helen Avery is joined by Elizabeth Beall, Managing Director of Finance Earth to discuss supply chain models including the Fisheries Improvement Fund (FIF) and how it can be replicated and scaled.

The FIF brings together actors across the entire seafood supply chain to fund the full costs of a Fishery Improvement Project or wider fishery improvements. The investment is then re-paid by a volume-based fee paid by supply chain actors.