Who we are

Proforest is a mission-driven organisation. We believe that agricultural commodity production can be done in a way that works for the natural environment where commodities are grown, benefits the people who live and work there, and in a way that creates a resilient climate.

What we do

At Proforest we’re passionate about helping people produce and source agricultural and forest commodities responsibly. That’s why we support companies throughout supply chains to have positive social and environmental outcomes in the places where commodities are produced.

Impact

All of the work we do contributes to eight positive environmental and social outcomes for people and the places where commodities are produced.

Responsible Finance

Proforest helps to develop environmental and social policies and safeguards to guide responsible finance in natural resources and agricultural commodities.

Investors can have a significant impact on the social and environmental performance of the companies that they finance. Organisations seeking investment to support their transition to more responsible production practices may be considered risky by investors. Investors also need the right policies and tools for screening potential clients and managing existing ones, while organisations seeking investment need tools to help them demonstrate their commitment and progress.

Beyond supporting individual investors and companies, Proforest also works to attract commercial and sustainable finance into production landscapes. Currently, sustainable landscape finance models are insufficient and primarily come from philanthropy, foreign aid and ESG budgets. To transition to sustainable landscapes, commercial finance and expertise is essential.

What do we do?

We work with the private sector, donors, governments and multilateral investors to develop environmental and social policies and safeguards for responsible finance.

At investment level

Evaluate current financial relationships and environmental and social risk assessment of new projects (Environmental and Social Due Diligence)
Develop policy and identify what environmental and social safeguards finance opportunities will deliver in practice
Develop and implement an action plan to bring investment portfolios in line with policy
Monitor or verify implementation of action plans by companies they are financing

At implementation level

Conduct due diligence of operations against international standards to meet finance institutions’ requirements for funding
Devise training and capacity-building programmes to ensure staff and partners understand and implement policy commitments and help clients meet environmental and social responsibility requirements
Develop and review criteria for social and environmental screening, and assess how they match the requirements of voluntary certification schemes

At landscape level:

Large-scale: we develop sustainable landscape initiatives by aligning projects and linking with government action; setting common, long-term goals; and developing a long-term funding plan. For example, in Edo State, Nigeria we collaborated with government and relevant stakeholders to protect the remaining forests and restore some degraded areas within forest reserves.
Local-scale: we have experience of building small-scale mechanisms enabling local access to capital, such as the revolving fund for women used in one of our Ghana landscapes.
Support philanthropic, private and public sector donors in creating the enabling conditions for landscape investments – co-design and testing viable investment cases and blended finance mechanisms. For more information, please see this Insight paper with WWF and UNEP on scaling finance for Landscape and Jurisdictional Initiatives.