A multiple-benefit framework for implementing nature-based solutions using conservation finance

Abstract

Sitting at the intersection of knowledge production and project implementation, our work as conservation finance project developers leverages economic and other benefits of environmental restoration to attract new and diverse funding sources for nature-based solutions (NBS). Our work supports project activities ranging from variable density thinning and prescribed burning to low-tech and process-based riparian restoration. In our experience, NBS presents a powerful, cost-effective opportunity to create scaled improvements in ecosystem function. However, funding NBS projects can be challenging, as some NBS outcomes are only achieved through large-scale landscape restoration, which is expensive, or are realized gradually over a period of time following restoration activities. Conservation finance is one tool that can catalyze meaningful NBS work at scale by providing the necessary upfront capital for projects while contracting funding commitments based on outcomes over time. Using several examples of successful NBS projects, we present a process-based, multiple-benefit framework to demonstrate how NBS can be leveraged to increase funds and enable financing. This framework is grounded in western U.S. forest management to address catastrophic wildfire, but can be applied in other regions and for other types of restoration activities. This approach addresses the logistical, governance, and sociocultural challenges we have encountered to leveraging NBS within a conservation finance framework. We also propose future avenues of research to help increase investment based on NBS. These include formalizing metrics for measuring and monitoring of different NBS activities, managing the uncertainty and expectations around outcomes of NBS projects, and incorporating the future impacts of climate change into NBS models and planning. By describing this work in a U.S. context, we hope to catalyze a discussion about how the needs and opportunities identified in our projects can inform work in Europe and vice versa.