We look forward to welcoming you to the 6th GLF Investment Case Symposium. Please arrive at the venue between 8:00-18:30. The registration desk will be at the ECCL entrance. No badge collection nor onsite registration will be permitted after closing the registration desk.

Please follow this link for helpful information on attending the event in person

Delivering conservation and restoration at scale is crucial for achieving global climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development goals. However, conservation requires secure, performance-based, and long-term financing across different stages of the project lifecycle, including incubation, development, and operations.

Market demand for conservation impacts is an emerging and promising solution to deliver long-term finance. Market-based mechanisms, such as the Rimba Collective, give projects access to reliable and sustainable sources of finance while supporting the achievement of global and corporate sustainability targets.

This session will showcase successful market-based mechanism for conservation finance, and explore the remaining challenges in this emerging field. The session will also introduce the new Rimba Collective incubation and readiness facility designed to help conservation projects prepare for market demand, and present a clear pathway to finance conservation and restoration impacts at scale and over time.

The 6th GLF Investment Case brings together a huge variety of participants ranging from finance stakeholders to project developers to investors and local community representatives. Through this networking event in a speed dating format, you will have the chance to connect with participants from all corners of the world. You will be matched with a participant randomly and will have 3 minutes to discuss. Following the end of the session, the list of people you met, and their contacts will be displayed so you can connect further after the end of the event. To kickstart your discussion, make sure to briefly introduce yourself and describe your interest in the conference themes.

This session will provide an overview of the Luxembourg sustainable finance journey, the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Strategy, and the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative. It will then dive deeper on what’s the LSFI Action Plan and its related activities.

About the LSFI
The Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative (LSFI) is Luxembourg’s coordinating entity on sustainable finance. It is a no-profit organization founded by the Luxembourg Government, Luxembourg for Finance, and the High Council on sustainable Development. Our aim is to promote sustainable finance in Luxembourg and help the financial sector transition towards increased sustainability.

ADA Microfinance holds a long-standing expertise in microfinance in agriculture in Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia. More recently, since 2022, we have supported the strengthening of forestry value chains, through support to small forest owners and wood processing SMEs in Guatemala, pursuing the double objective of enhanced resilience and environmental sustainability. In our pitch, will give insights on lessons learned from these experiences in two continents and an outlook to future activities for which we are looking for partners.

The financial sector has been a leading contributor to the crises we face today, from climate change to land degradation to biodiversity loss, but it also has the potential to be an important part of the remedy. While many commitments have been made, such as net zero and zero deforestation pledges, more needs to happen to reach the sustainable finance tipping point. With finance thought leaders, we will discuss what the next steps must be for the financial ecosystem to become a driver of sustainability.

In this session, three investment-ready nature-based projects will pitch their work to investors, who will ask questions and share feedback in a Dragons’ Den format.

How can we help finance for nature break into the mainstream? Find out in this inspirational talk by Fabiola Berrocal, technical and M&E manager for the Business Case for Collective Landscape Action initiative at the Rainforest Alliance.

The expansion of agricultural into forest areas is one of the most important drivers of biodiversity loss. According to IUCN, roughly 52% of the species listed as threatened are directly affected by agricultural activities, especially in the Global South. A substantial amount of the expansion of agricultural areas is driven by international demand, offering importing countries a way to outsource part of the environmental costs of consumed agricultural products. An increasing number of studies assesses the impact of agricultural trade on ecosystems. This session summarizes main findings, challenges and implications of such analyses for decision-making processes.

Mark Burrows AO | After a distinguished global career in investment banking, Mark became an advocate for private sector involvement for sustainable development and the evolution of green finance.
Mark has held senior advisory roles with UNEP, UNDP, The Green Finance Initiative London, G20 Sustainability Group and currently on the Asian Board of the Nature Conservancy.

Many corporate and financial investors have adopted net-zero emission targets and biodiversity commitments. However, it is not trivial to ensure compliance in a robust and cost-effective manner, e.g. that agricultural loans do not contribute to deforestation, or to demonstrate that investments increase biodiversity. Impact investors are therefore increasingly demanding impact monitoring tools to ensure that investments generate no harm and provide restoration benefits in terms of enhanced resilience to climate change and biodiversity conservation.

In this interview, we explore opportunities and challenges in sustainable finance in Southeast Asia with Dyah Puspitaloka, the Indonesia lead for the Research Group in Green Value Chains, Integrated Business Models and Innovative Financing at CIFOR-ICRAF.

Ecosystem restoration is a key to achieving development, climate, and nature goals. Three-quarters of the Earth’s ice-free land surface and two-thirds of its marine environment have been significantly altered and at least 20% of its land surface is now degraded, according to IPBES. This has taken a toll on nature’s ability to provide goods and services that communities and economic sectors depend on. Restoration is on the political agenda, as reflected in the Kunming–Montreal global biodiversity framework that set a target to restore at least 30% of degraded areas by 2030, but it faces a financing gap. Key barriers such as lack of data and knowledge about bankable business models involving restoration; difficulties with monetizing the benefits of restoration, perverse incentives, and lack of access to finance mean that restoration continues to rely on public funding, with minimal participation from the private sector.

This session, organized by the World Bank-led Finance Taskforce under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, will highlight some of the most promising models and financial solutions that are unlocking private investment in restoration across different sectors and ecosystems. Please join this session to learn more about these experiences in a dynamic conversation with corporate and financial leaders investing in restoration.

The increased need for innovative entrepreneurial solutions to drive sustainable transformations of industry in the Global South means there is an increased need for accelerator and incubator programs to get businesses investment-ready. This session will aim to help entrepreneurs in and across the Global South better understand accelerators, incubators, and their role in promoting businesses that focus on sustainability. The session will be split into two parts, and the first will be a plenary – which will be streamed on the conferencing platform. The second will take the form of an interactive workshop and will be invite-only.

As this session will be a workshop, only 40 slots are available, and participants will be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis!

If you’re interested in joining the interactive part of the session, sign up for the session using this Typeform: https://zauv9ivqk5b.typeform.com/to/OLWA9Cgu The last accepted registration will be on 2 March 2023, at 18:00. CET. Any successful applicants will receive an email with further instructions.

A brief overview of the partnership between the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Global Landscapes Forum to mainstream investments in sustainable land use and climate.

This session will present EIB’s role in catalyzing sustainable private sector investments in the Global South, showcasing how local communities that depend on forests and natural resources can benefit from sustainable management solutions at scale.

The Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility (BNCFF), funded by the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and managed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), supports the development of sound, investable blue natural capital (BNC) projects with clear ecosystem service benefits, based on multiple income streams and appropriate risk-return profiles. This session will provide an overview of BNCFF operations over the last five years, building a pipeline of marine and coastal restoration and conservation projects, discuss lessons learned, and highlight various knowledge products (such as blue prints, blue carbon and coastal resilience business models, etc) developed by IUCN- and BNCFF-supported projects.

The Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for the mobilisation of USD 200 billion per year in biodiversity funding. Complementing impact funds, sustainable land use impact bonds could unlock new types of private capital at scale. In addition to financing large projects, sustainable land use (SLU) impact bonds offer also a means to ‘aggregate’ several loans of smaller projects into a bond/debt security, making them investable by DFIs or institutional investors.
Imagine Impact Bonds is an independent white-label platform accelerating the issuance of impact project bonds, notes and certificates at affordable cost. In collaboration with UNEP, Imagine launches a new bond issuance program to boost the financing of sustainable land use projects. The session will present the principles of the Imagine Impact Bonds platform and benefits of the SLU impact bonds program.

Where is sustainable finance headed in India – home to four of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots? We ask Namita Vikas, founder and managing director of auctus ESG, about the opportunities and challenges facing finance for nature in India.

How can we leverage the potential of carbon markets to enable smallholders to transition to agroforestry at scale? Smallholders are responsible for 80% of human consumed food production but are hit hardest by climate change despite having contributing little to it. Unfair, right? Furthermore, smallholders don’t have access to traditional financial means to diversify their business model, become more climate resilient & improve their livelihoods. As just 1.7% of current climate finance flows to smallholders, we need new solutions. Projects making use of carbon finance have a lot of potential if implemented well. In this session, Acorn (Rabobank) and One Acre Fund will discuss how.

Where do sustainable financiers find hope? Learn about some of the most promising financial innovations from Diego Creimer, director of Finance and Biodiversity at the Sociéte pour la nature et les parcs (SNAP Québec).

The challenge of ecosystem restoration remains a pressing issue for the globe. Forests are home to most of the terrestrial biodiversity (75% of bird species, 68% of mammal species and about 60,000 tree species). Between 1990 and 2020, deforestation and forest degradation led to a decrease in the world’s forest area of around 178 million hectares, which is equivalent to the size of Libya, meaning that the opportunities for ecosystem restoration are very significant.
Enhancing the involvement of the forest sector in the conservation and restoration of forest ecosystems has the potential to have a positive impact on biodiversity and forest health, and in turn, on the sustainability of the companies’ own raw materials sourcing and commercial activities along the value chain.
This session will explore how the forest sector can increase their participation in ecosystem restoration to leverage their unique knowledge base and utilize its land area to advance environmental and societal interests. In particular, it will discuss opportunities for expanding the use of sustainable finance in the area of forest restoration for multiple outcomes.

Brazil is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries. In this interview, we speak with Leonardo Letelier, CEO and founder of Sitawi Finance For Good, to learn how the finance sector can help safeguard the country’s landscapes and wildlife.

More sustainable livestock value chains are required to address both mitigation and adaptation climate change concerns. A key neglected feature of this is ensuring investments in improving and restoring the productivity of the land upon which these livestock value chains depend: if this land continues to be degraded, then livestock value chains will collapse.

This session will present two investment cases from Colombia and Mongolia that have taken steps towards developing partnerships with the commercial sector, investors and value chain actors to harness finance for rangeland protection and restoration through sustainable low-emission livestock value chains.

These cases highlight the importance of a collaborative approach to such investment opportunities, bringing together producers, research organizations, NGOs, commercial sector and climate financers. The session is a collaboration between the CGIAR initiatives on Livestock and Climate and Climate Resilience, the Sustainable Fibre Alliance, Hacienda San Jose Colombia and the CGIAR Hub for Sustainable Finance.

What does sustainable finance have to do with Indigenous rights? Find out in this inspirational talk by Galina Angarova, executive director of Cultural Survival.

Approximately USD 4.1 trillion of global funding is needed to meet the climate change, biodiversity, and land degradation targets by 2050 (source: 2021 State of Finance for Nature report). In addition, continued dependency on public funds and a remarkable need to attract private investors is observed for sustainable related investments in emerging markets. The session aims at showcasing how blended finance can be an efficient tool to give access to institutional private investors to climate and natural capital strategies that they would not be able to invest otherwise.

About BlueOrchard:
BlueOrchard is a leading global impact investment manager and a member of the Schroders Group, with 20+ years of experience in emerging and frontier markets.

Sustainable finance has the potential to transform the livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples across the Americas and beyond. In this interview, we’re joined by Eileen Mairena, a researcher and advocacy officer on climate finance and territorial governance at the Centre for the Autonomy and Development of Indigenous Peoples (CADPI).

Commodities such as palm oil, livestock, soy, coffee and cocoa are some of the main drivers of agriculture related land use change. They are also key commodities of the FOLUR Impact Program, which seeks to transform global food systems through sustainable value chains. This session will feature expert insights and case studies on how financial institutions can proactively respond to newly proposed regulations and accounting standards to drive change in landscapes and across value chains.

Overview of GCF’s support towards sustainable landscapes

There is no lack of opportunities to invest in nature. Many projects, funds and investors are making waves in the world of sustainable finance with ambitions to positively impact local communities and landscapes. Yet to achieve these goals, best practices need to be scaled up. This session will reflect on successful and innovative financing mechanisms that could be leveraged to sustain and restore nature.

Join us for the Closing Reception of the 6th GLF Investment Case Symposium, where you will get the opportunity to meet colleagues from a variety of organizations and backgrounds. Refreshments will also be available.