Terra Global Keynote Speaker at Global Landscapes Forum – The Investment Case

The Global Landscapes Forum – “The Investment Case” conference was held in London on June 10^th.   It gathered over 100 of the leading thinkers on overcoming roadblocks and scaling up solutions for sustainable landscapes finance.  Leslie Durschinger, Founder and Managing Director of Terra Global was one of the keynote speakers along with Peter Wheeler, Executive Vice President, The Nature Conservancy, Bernard Giraud, Senior Sustainability Advisor President of Livelihoods Venture Danone, Mark Burrows, Managing Director and Vice Chairman, Global Investment Banking Credit Suisse, and Bill Rahill Director, Environment & Natural Resources Global Practice of the World Bank Group. The session opened the day with a focus on building the investment case for sustainable landscapes. 

As the third speaker with a truncated time allotment, Ms. Durschinger, covered, in lighting speed, some key topics including 1) the heterogeneity of the private sector with different motivations and ability to impact land-use, 2) the investment criteria for the Terra Bella private equity fund, and 3) a “David Letterman style” top ten considerations for financing sustainable landscapes. 

There were numerous requests for Leslie's top ten list so here they are…

1. Not all interventions for sustainable landscapes are investable - know these and use donor funds to finance
2. Private sector consists of multiple segments with different motivations and ability to impact the financing for land-use change -  know them and treat them accordingly
3. Reducing risk requires structuring financial instruments backed by donor/public funds that can be directly accessed by private sector investors - avoid dilution through typical donor agencies and structures
4. Scaling finance will require institutional investor participation – attract finance by embedding  in “known” instruments such as bonds or private equity funds
5. REDD+ results-based emission reductions programs fill critical transitional gap - ensure that terms with countries are conducive to combining and attracting private investments
6. Commercially viable investment opportunities in small holders are limited – develop dedicated and linked technical assistance facilities to scale these opportunities
7. Extractives with target CSR and/or regulatory mitigation programs can deliver significant finance – small relative cost, if applied effectively can fund meaningful landscape programs
8. Domestic financing sources have critical role to play – if adequately capitalized and with properly structured financial instruments
9. Building productive agriculture and NTPF activities on the landscape is critical - but solutions must include promoting carbon value chains as these are productive activities! too
10. Ask yourself “How many years do YOU have? for your children - for your children’s children and for the world’s children to make a difference in how we globally manage landscapes? - Don’t wait. Make every day count!