Ecosystem Return Foundation

Transcription

1

2 Ecosystem Return Foundation Restoring 200 million hectares of degraded ecosystems worldwide by partners in business in the next 20 years Ecological restoration will give four returns: Return on Investment Return of Natural Capital Return of Social Capital Return of Inspirational Capital page 2

3 Ecosystem Return Foundation - Introduction The ambition of the Ecosystem Return Foundation is to restore 200 million hectares of degraded ecosystems worldwide in the next 20 years. To achieve this goal, Ecosystem Return will both accelerate and scale up existing restoration efforts, and initiate new ones, by making the right matches between project owners (NGOs, local communities, governments) and a variety of stakeholders (investors, businesses and sponsors). The aim for 2013/2014 is to start with the development of three projects, based on a careful review of existing opportunities. By 2015 Ecosystem Return expects to have nine projects in its portfolio. For each restoration project, a site-specific business model is developed together with a selected team of professionals with extensive experience in business, ecology, finance and agriculture. The Ecosystem Return Foundation is an international independent non-profit organization, recently established in the Netherlands, receiving support from a range of top-level international scientific institutions and non-governmental organizations. The role of the Ecosystem Return Foundation is to act as an independent matchmaker, facilitating the creation and management of a partnership between various stakeholders (investors, local communities, governments, NGOs and companies) to restore ecologically degraded areas in a practical and realistic way. At the moment we are at the startup phase of this initiative and a number of impact investors have committed to support the realization of our project portfolio. The business model is based on restoring areas by a business partnership yielding four Returns: Return on Investment (economic benefits), Return of Natural Capital (ecosystem services), Return of Social Capital (employment and social cohesion) and Return of Inspirational Capital (engagement and innovation). The present document will provide further information to prospect sponsors for this important initiative. The outline is as follows: Benefits and opportunities for ecosystem restoration About Ecosystem Return Foundation Activities Business model of ecosystem restoration Founders Partners Governance and funding page 3

4 Benefits and opportunities for ecosystem restoration. Natural capital (i.e. functional ecosystems) are the basis of our life, providing us with products and services like food, shelter, drinking water, clean air, good health and a stable climate. At this moment, around 60% of the services natural capital provides to mankind, are threatened. A few facts: Much of the current deserts were once lush ecosystems. More than 2 billion hectares (15-20% of the total land area of the planet) of land as well as large areas of marine ecosystems are degraded, causing enormous losses to agriculture, reducing soil fertility, water storage, climate stability and biodiversity. Root causes include over-grazing, unsustainable farming and cutting of trees for charcoal and timber. Once degraded, erosion and changes in the microclimate often result in permanent deserts. The good news is that degradation can be reversed and at moderate costs. In many situations technologies exist to restore and conserve ecosystem functions for improved livelihoods and providing jobs in a stable and socially just local economy. The restored lands are able to deliver clean water and air, food, and a rich biodiversity again. Soils are regenerated and carbon is captured. In China, an area of the size of Belgium has been restored through down-to-earth tools like sustainable irrigation, together with planting of local trees (see figure 1). Similar examples exist in the Sahel, Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean and the Americas. We know what to do, and how to do it: the tools and networks to manage and maintain the restored landscapes exist. However, despite international agreements until now the number and size of restoration efforts of degraded ecosystems has remained low and progress slow. Several NGOs, farmers and governmental organizations are working on ecosystem restoration, but they do not work together sufficiently to scale up. Furthermore, the business sector and investors are typically not involved, even though they may have strong interests in restoration. The Ecosystem Return Foundation will connect these groups to the restoration project. By working closely with business partners in a partnership, it aims to leverage the entrepreneurial spirit and financial power of the private sector to boost the speed and scale of restoration projects. Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation, China Key outcomes > 2.5 million people lifted out of poverty, rate of poverty reduction from 59 to 27% Farmer incomes rose from US$ 70 per year per person to US$ 200. Sediment flow into the Yellow River reduced by more than 53 million tons. Increased perennial vegetation cover from 17% to 34% Network of small dams stores water for use by towns and also reduces flooding Project started in 1995, total budget ~$500mln for 3.5 million hectares. Equaling investment <US$143 USD per hectare Fig 1. Scaling up ecological restoration in China: the Loess plateau (photo credit: John D. Liu) page 4

5 About Ecosystem Return Foundation The role of the Ecosystem Return Foundation is to act as a catalyst and independent matchmaker 1 to realize large-scale restoration of degraded ecosystems. It facilitates and guides the creation and management of a partnership between various stakeholders (i.e. local communities, governments, farmers, NGOs, companies, etc.) to restore the degraded area(s). The Ecosystem Return Foundation: Identifies degraded ecosystems that are ready for scaling up restoration (i.e., not all areas present the conducive environment to be restored); Leads the creation of Ecosystem Restoration Partnerships; bringing in relevant local and international stakeholders to create a 20 year partnership to restore the degraded area(s), and deliver benefits to each of the stakeholders and to compensate them for their investment, in capital or in other forms; Involves business actors into the restoration partnerships, co-developing the opportunities and business case in relationship to their investment and business activities; Actively supports and monitors the partnerships over the course of 20 years; Works with the top experts in the field of restoration, deploying the best available know-how and tools e.g. trenching, fencing, waterboxx, micro-organisms, etc. (see figure 2 for examples) Shares expertise and lessons learned from restoration projects carried out in conjunction with Ecosystem Return or by other entities. ER Involves business schools at every project, contributing to the ecological awareness of the future generation of business leaders. Fig. 2. Many different tools are available. Left: the waterboxx technology makes highly effective tree planting in man-made deserts possible without irrigation or fertilizers (photo credit: Pieter Hoff). Right: mangrove planting in Indonesia (photo credit: Wetlands International) The projects the Ecosystem Return Foundation will support directly affect the lives of people living on the land. To make sure our projects will realize their triple bottom line ; that is being successful from ecological, stakeholder and socio-economic perspective, utmost care is required in project selection, local and national stakeholder management and the involvement of restoration partners. Aside from working exclusively with the best in class professionals, Ecosystem Return is developing a robust risk management strategy together with its supporting partners. 1 It is important for the Ecosystem Return Foundation to remain independent vis-à-vis the partnerships, i.e., they should have no direct benefit from the outputs of the partnerships, to ensure their brokerage role is carried out impartially. This does not prohibit Ecosystem Return from being compensated by the partnership projects for services rendered in order to cover the operational expenses of the Foundation. page 5

6 Activities The Ecosystem Return Foundation is currently in the start-up phase. For 2013/2014 the following actions are planned: Three Ecosystems Restoration Partnerships with investors, companies, local organizations and business schools are created in 2013 and six in The Ecosystem Return methodology, (see figure 3),will be finalized and implemented. The methodology is based on four internationally accepted guidelines: 1. Ecology: ecological restoration guidelines 2. Finance: business model partnerships with ROI 3. Partnerships: principles of cooperation for partnerships and stakeholders 4. Stakeholders: guidelines on local participation Set-up the Ecosystem Return Foundation: staff, international governance and statutes, office location in Amsterdam Financial City Communication, website & awareness plan (including international filmmaker John Liu, China) Support by relevant international institutions/thought leaders Participation of business schools, at MBA level Second edition of paper Nature Resilience: organising ecological restoration by partners in business for next generations, available in the following languages English, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese Ecological restoration by business in six steps: 6 Identify the location, investors and stakeholders Act as independent coach to monitor progress to assure longterm commitment of all stakeholders 1 5 Learning and research partnership with a business school Ecosystem Return Foundation Make the business investment based on ecology, agriculture and others 4 2 Support vision and strategy with regards to management of restoration Give guidance and acces to data of bestpractice examples, tools and analyses 3 Fig. 3 Six steps model for business to partner in ecological restoration (Source: Nature Resilience: organising ecological restoration by partners in business. IUCN CEM, RSM. 2012) page 6

7 Fig. 4. Spain, Marismas de Alady, Santander. Restoration (left: before and right: after) of dry out wetlands for water purification, bird migration and tourism Business model of ecosystem restoration The business model of ecological restoration is developed in close cooperation with McKinsey&Company, Groasis (tree planting technology company), IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management, Rotterdam School of Management Erasmus University, FMO The entrepreneurial development bank and Wageningen University. It takes into account the variety of ecosystems and makes use of agriculture and agroforestry and other land use potentials, carbon and natural capital services such as water and biodiversity. Degraded areas will be divided into three zones: an ecological zone, a mixed zone and an economic zone. To realize the potential returns, a long-term commitment of at least 20 years is required. Fig. 5. The business model is based on returns from agriculture, carbon, water and additional values land, which are coming from restored degraded lands. The longer the restoration activities last the more returns it will provide. page 7

8 Founders The Ecosystem Return Foundation is an initiative of Willem Ferwerda, former director of IUCN NL, founder of Leaders for Nature, a business/biodiversity network and an international recognized expert and innovator in biodiversity and ecosystems. He is supported by an international group of professionals working in ecology, agriculture, technology, business and finance. Ferwerda is full-time committed to realize the ambition of the foundation. Institutional founding fathers are the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management, the Rotterdam School of Management - Erasmus University and Groasis Green Technology. The Dutch office of Camunico - leaders in culture ( will guide the establishment and management of the foundation. Partners The Ecosystem Return Foundation is supported by the following institutions: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification), UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme), McKinsey & Company, Baker & McKenzie, Egon Zehnder, Wetlands International, HIVOS, Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration (secretariat IUCN), IUCN NL, Leaders for Nature (NL, India), EEMP (China), World Land Trust (UK), Charles Darwin Foundation (Ecuador), ISRIC (World Soil Information), Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Netherlands), The Permaculture Research Institute (Australia), VU-Amsterdam, Wageningen University, Copernicus Institute Utrecht University, FMO the entrepreneurial development bank, HIVOS, Nyenrode Business University, Loyens & Loeff, Deltares, Eduard Zanen (founder of Bugaboo International) and Camunico. Several institutions and companies are welcoming the establishment of the Foundation and are looking for participation in restoration projects, initiated and facilitated by the Ecosystem Return Foundation and its network. Governance and funding The Ecosystem Return Foundation is an initiative, which requires the support of donors who are excited and committed to restore ecosystems, and who realize that this is a long-lasting journey and value the necessity for independence of this entity. Costs at the Foundation will scale up with successful growth of the ecosystem partnerships, and the funding model will be through the receipt of a commission per composed partnership. Start-up funding is needed for ; a detailed budget of expenses is available on request. Sponsors will be periodically informed on the progress of the Ecosystem Return Foundation versus pre-agreed milestones. The governance of the foundation consists of a Board supported by the international Advisory Council. Contact Catherine van Nierop Camunico Barbara Strozzilaan HN Amsterdam, The Netherlands Phone: ; Mobile Catherine.vannierop@ecosystemreturn.com Website: page 8