London Climate Action Week takeaway: Resilient landscapes are the foundation for a robust global economy

Proforest’s Responsible Finance team were out in force at London Climate Action Week, representing our Finance for Resilient Landscapes programme, which is supported by philanthropic funding from HSBC and which we coordinate with partners Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy.

Across the range of events that HSBC spoke at during LCAW, a clear message emerged: resilient landscapes are critical for the security of global trade.

Deforestation is increasingly recognised as a business risk and not just an environmental issue – Many companies recognise that forest and nature loss are a source of supply chain uncertainty; accelerating risks related to drought, flooding, soil degradation or social instability, all of which threaten the resilience of production and security of agricultural supply chains.

Nature as an asset – Despite the increasing value placed on nature, the natural assets (e.g. forests) in landscapes where key commodities are produced often sit in areas adjacent to and not directly managed by corporates sourcing from these areas. The finance solutions for the protection and restoration of these natural assets needs to learn from existing models (i.e. carbon markets) and consider emerging models that bring together different types of capital.

Coming together - Addressing nature loss at scale will require new models of collaboration between business, governments, civil society, investors and philanthropy. Our Finance for Resilient Landscapes (F4RL) programme helps to demonstrate what's possible when philanthropy, the private sector, and financial institutions come together around a shared goal: creating landscapes that are more productive, more resilient and better able to deliver positive outcomes for people, nature and climate.

As momentum continues to build, the challenge now is how quickly we can scale the finance and partnerships required to make investment in resilient landscapes a reality.