Forestbase

At Forestbase, we are on a mission to protect all primary rainforests globally.

Forestbase

Commencé en : 2024

Project by : Forestbase

Commencé en : 2024

Project

At Forestbase, we are on a mission to protect all primary rainforests globally. Deforestation is a land use crisis driven by financial incentive. Nature is inherently connected to land. There is a price on land everywhere. That means that nature is present in the financial system, but only with one leg. Forests are being sold for their value in land, with the pristine nature on top valued at zero. This means that the price tag on nature is way too low. We have the ambition to show the world the true financial value of nature. We acquire primary forests, always bigger than 10 000 hectares, we protect them and bring them to market as natural infrastructure assets in a stabilized legal-financial format. By unlocking financial market dynamics, we believe we can reach a much higher price point for forests than we see today. Our financial models, commissioned externally, show that this price point can go beyond €10 000/ha, which is in strong contrast with today’s €25/ha.

Site du projet

Brussels Region

Contribution(s)

Coût du projet

Participant(s)

- Local People: Tens of millions of small agricultural enterprises globally own dormant wealth in the form of primary nature. Unlocking this wealth financially empowers them. - Entire countries: Many countries own dormant wealth in the form of primary nature. Unlocking this wealth financially empowers them in the global financial scene. Several countries put €0 on nature today in their national accounting. Putting a number there in the vicinity of €10 000/ha can unlock billions, which will come with a renewed appreciation for their nature.

How are the criteria met?

Biodiversity-friendly financial flows

- We enable investors to invest directly in primary forests as an infrastructure asset. - We finance entire projects as part of the forest we acquire from the private market. We try to acquire high-risk forests on which timber and agro enterprises can make a bid. - Our focus is on conservation of entire ecosystems, which is why we always acquire forests >10 000 hectares. - Our projects will be tracked with technology (drone flights, satellite imagery, bodycams and acoustic devices). But we will also track the socio-economic evolution in the surroundings of the forests that we acquire since we consider the wellbeing of communities a key conservation asset. - We request our partners to confirm that we are only having conversations in a context of respect towards the mitigation ladder and that they only offset what they cannot reasonable solve internally. - We work at the hearth of deforestation, and we consider pristine forests as planetary infrastructure. By doing so, the effect of what we do has positive impact on all 38 ecosystem services (carbon, biodiversity, water, pollination, erosion, soil quality...). - By increasing the value of primary forests, we reduce the global available hectares for agro land, since many parties will start considering the conservation case as better than agro when we reach a tipping point. By doing so, the remaining agro land will be incentivized to yield more efficiently. - By setting a more precise standard, we want to make the term ‘Natural Capital’ stricter in use.
Initiatives éventuelles à laquelle le projet participe :
Le projet ne fait partie d'aucune initiative existante.

Maintenance à long terme

Benefits

- Higher financial value on nature reduces pressure to deforest Given that deforestation is predominantly driven by financial incentive, unlocking a higher price per hectare of forest land is the key to re-designing the economic incentive that drives the deforestation economy. We will bring these forests to public markets so that we can reach the first ever market-made and globally visible price anchor point for tropical forest. - Unlocking value of nature unlocks wealth for the owner By bringing intrinsic value closer to real market price, we intend to unlock wealth for tens of millions of families and even entire countries in the tropical belt who own pristine forests today. - Healthier and more effective offset market dynamics Having nature itself present in the financial markets in a standardized way is the key component for healthy offset markets. We apply an exceptional focus on land tenure, since we believe this is the main weakness in today’s offset markets. We will only see healthy market dynamics if both asset (forest land) and its product (ecosystem services) are publicly trading.

Other projects linked to the objective "Biodiversity-friendly financial flows"

EN