The conservation finance nonprofit Blue Forest teamed with Pheasants Forever, a habitat conservation nonprofit, to create a new financing mechanism for projects that improve watershed resilience in southern Oregon and northeastern California.
Private citizens own vast tracts of land that encompass watersheds and other vital ecosystems. The Natural Resource Conservation Service, a Department of Agriculture agency, helps finance large scale conservation projects on privately owned land.
But landowners need to pay upfront costs before getting reimbursed for a portion when the project is completed. That has held back full use of the program. The bond covers those upfront costs to improve liquidity.
“This new approach allows landowners to exercise their conservation ethic without the fear of drowning in up-front costs for natural resources management,” said Ron Leathers of Pheasants Forever. “It’s the future of conservation finance.”
Wildfire risk
The bond will be financed by mission-driven investors via Blue Forest’s FRB Catalyst Facility. Alumbra Innovations Foundation, a lead investor in the facility, supported the bond’s development.
Separately, Blue Forest secured a $25 million commitment from IBank California, the state’s infrastructure and economic development bank, for its California Wildfire Innovation Fund that will invest in projects that reduce wildfire risk in the state’s forests.
