Investments in conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of nature are seen as too risky by most investors and have so far been limited in scale. In order to mainstream conservation finance, the Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC) has identified a set of blue-print models to set a precedent and track record to orient private investors in the emerging asset class of conservation finance.

As part of this initiative, we supported and developed the Conservation & Climate-Smart Lending Platform (C2SLP) together with our partner F3Life. The Conservation & Climate-Smart Lending Platform (C2SLP) is based on the inclusion of requirements for improved environmental practice in agricultural loan terms, which makes improved on-farm conservation a contractual obligation and a component of a farmer’s credit score. The C2SLP is scalable and flexible: it can be adapted to different agro-ecological contexts and land management measures and as a pay-as-you go model, which is designed to save costs for lenders and investors.

The model has been developed for adoption in a variety of contexts and value chains, including coffee, tea, sugar, maize, cocoa, dairy, and cotton, and can easily be adapted to other crops. Farmers are screened for creditworthiness, either by the agri lender (such as a bank, microfinance institution, and credit cooperative) or using digital scoring tools developed by FACS. This leads to the creation of a portfolio of bankable smallholders, who are then issued conservation and climate-smart loans. You can see more information about the C2SLP model: here.

For more information about CPIC platform and our C2SLP: here.