Forestbase

Bij Forestbase hebben we als missie om alle primaire regenwouden wereldwijd te beschermen.
De Belgische productie en consumptie biodiversiteitsvriendelijker maken

Forestbase

Started in:

Project by: Forestbase

Started in:

The project

Bij Forestbase hebben we de missie om alle primaire regenwouden wereldwijd te beschermen. Ontbossing is een crisis in landgebruik die wordt aangestuurd door financiële prikkels. De natuur is inherent verbonden met land. Er is overal een prijskaartje aan land. Dat betekent dat de natuur aanwezig is in het financiële systeem, maar slechts met één been. Bossen worden verkocht voor hun waarde in land, met de ongerepte natuur erbovenop gewaardeerd op nul. Dit betekent dat het prijskaartje voor natuur veel te laag is. We hebben de ambitie om de wereld de ware financiële waarde van de natuur te laten zien. We verwerven primaire bossen, altijd groter dan 10.000 hectare, we beschermen ze en brengen ze op de markt als natuurlijke infrastructuuractiva in een gestabiliseerd juridisch-financieel formaat. Door de dynamiek van de financiële markt te ontsluiten, geloven we dat we een veel hoger prijsniveau voor bossen kunnen bereiken dan we vandaag de dag zien. Onze financiële modellen, extern in opdracht gegeven, laten zien dat dit prijsniveau boven de € 10.000/ha kan uitkomen, wat in schril contrast staat met de huidige € 25/ha.

Project location

Brussels Gewest

Bijdrage(s)

Project costs

Deelnemer(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 of the objective met?

Biodiversiteitsvriendelijke financiële stromen

  • 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.

Possible initiatives in which the project is involved :

The project is not part of any existing initiative.

Long-term maintenance

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"

Il n'y a pas encore d'autres projets dans cet objectif.
N'hésitez pas à nous en proposer un!

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