Amazon Investor Coalition

Advancing forest friendly economic development

The Amazon Investor Coalition is a global learning and investment platform that unites philanthropies and private investors with governments, non-profits and allies to increase forest-friendly economic development and the rule of law across the Amazon region.

As a central resource for climate change mitigation and the global water cycle, the Amazon rainforest is vital for planetary sustainability. Investing in a regenerative Amazon bioeconomy is the highest-leverage climate mitigation opportunity of our time.

We aim to ensure that the forest is worth more alive and standing than cut and burned.

Launched on September 16, 2020, at the United Nations 75 Global Governance Forum, we are a nonprofit operating as a collaborative program of the Earth Innovation Institute and the Giving Back Fund, with support from NEXUS, a global community of 6000+ members from 70 countries that bridges communities of wealth and impact to catalyze new leadership and accelerate solutions to global problems.

Press Release

New global partnership launched to help Amazon forest community-based enterprises flourish and generate social and environmental benefits for the region

Intercontinental public-private partnership formed between Amazon Investor Coalition, CERTI Foundation, Earth Innovation Institute, NEXUS and Partnerships for Forests to catalyze new forms of blended capital and rainforest entrepreneurship that generate value from preserved biodiversity and carbon stocks to outcompete deforestation.

San Francisco, CA, April 21, 2022 – Leading up to Earth Day, the Amazon Investor Coalition (AIC), a collaborative program of the Earth Innovation Institute (EII), has joined with CERTI Foundation (CERTI, Brazil) in a multilateral strategic Partnership, with support from the British government’s Partnerships for Forests (P4F) and NEXUS, a global network of next gen impact investors, philanthropists, and allies. The Partnership will advance and integrate economic and environmental development goals across the Amazon region. The five organizations are working together to help the Amazon strengthen its economic potential as the largest forest-positive bioeconomy in the world, and a global leader in decarbonization.

Global finance can have a fundamental impact on forests and people in the Amazon. As a central resource for mitigating climate change and maintaining the global water cycle, the Amazon rainforest is vital for planetary sustainability. The Amazon is home to invaluable carbon sinks and biological assets, including thousands of species, which could spur regional economic breakthroughs if linked equitably and sustainably to global markets, modern technology, and community rights. Developing a regenerative bioeconomy in the Amazon is one of the highest-leverage climate stabilization investment opportunities of our lifetime.

The Partnership between AIC, EII, CERTI, P4F, and NEXUS aims to protect Amazon ecosystems, restore food systems, drawdown carbon, and create regional wealth by mobilizing the global finance community (AIC and NEXUS), the Amazon entrepreneurship community (CERTI), and subnational Amazon governments and farm sectors (EII) to help the Amazon rainforest reach its full economic potential.

In its first year, the Partnership aims to increase and improve the allocation of blended capital in the region by mobilizing and uniting $10m in philanthropy, $30m in private investment, and $5m in corporate purchasing agreements for sustainably sourced rainforest goods.

“I spent the past decade building NEXUS for a moment like this,” said Jonah Wittkamper, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of AIC, and President and Co-Founder of NEXUS. “So many people want to help. I believe the forest is worth more alive and standing, than cut and burned. And, now we have the team in place to make it possible.”

A key initiative of the Partnership is the development of an Alliance with a dozen incubators, accelerators, and ecosystem-strengthening organizations operating in the region. The goal of this Alliance is to increase investment flow to mature the rainforest’s bioeconomy. By helping capital providers discover investable projects, gain transparency into the Amazon market, and find peers along their “Amazon investing journey,” the Alliance seeks to boost businesses that grow with forests across a range of sectors, including carbon sequestration, food and beverage, fisheries, cosmetics, fashion/textiles, pharma, plant medicine, etc.

The global Partnership is also increasing the supply of investable opportunities by supporting local innovators along their “Amazon entrepreneurship journey,” through CERTI’s “Jornada Amazonia.”

“This Partnership represents a unique opportunity to further strengthen local entrepreneurs and boost the Amazon innovation ecosystem,” said Marcos Da-Ré, Director Green Economy at CERTI.

The intended result: A broad-scale economic and land-use transition away from industrial-scale monoculture and pasture, and towards a rights-based approach to sustainable development that recognizes the inherent value of biological diversity, indigenous agency, and carbon richness as a renewable engine of growth.

Earth Innovation Institute's President and Executive Director, Dan Nepstad, comments that, "Investments in promising new bioeconomies, new commercial partnerships and the arrival of the long-awaited carbon market for state-wide REDD+ programs are pillars of a healthy, prosperous, forest-positive Amazon. We are extremely excited about this new collaboration with AIC, CERTI, P4F and NEXUS."

Marcio Sztutman, Regional Director of P4F in Latin America, stated, “The UK government, via P4F, supports the synergy of this Partnership and the virtuous cycle that will drive investment into businesses that bring development to local communities while safeguarding its greatest richness - the Amazonian forest.”

The Amazon Investor Coalition: Capital Mobilization

The Amazon Investor Coalition is a global learning and investment platform that unites philanthropists and private investors with governments, nonprofits and allies to advance forest-friendly economic development and the rule of law across the Amazon region. AIC is a collaborative program of the Earth Innovation Institute and the Giving Back Fund, with support from NEXUS, a global community of 6000+ members from 70 countries that bridges communities of wealth and impact to catalyze new leadership and accelerate solutions to global problems.

Earth Innovation Institute: Low Carbon Economy

The Earth Innovation Institute promotes the transition to low-emission rural development, a shift to economic growth across political boundaries that keeps the forest standing and rewards forest communities, farmers, and fishermen for using sustainable practices.

Fundação CERTI : Innovative Solutions

Fundação CERTI is a non-profit organization based in Brazil, with 37 years of experience fostering and developing innovation ecosystems in Brazil. In the Amazon, CERTI leads the Jornada Amazônia initiative, which aims to contribute to forest conservation by activating the impact entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem and promoting the competitiveness of the standing forest.

Partnerships for Forests: Shared Value

Partnerships for Forests (P4F) catalyzes investments in which the private sector, public sector and communities can achieve shared value from forests and sustainable land use. P4F is a program of the UK's Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), currently operating in Central, East and West Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. It is implemented by Palladium and Systemiq.

NEXUS

NEXUS bridges communities of wealth and impact. It serves as a global platform to unite next gen philanthropists, impact investors, and social entrepreneurs to bring about the most promising global solutions of our time.

Contacts:

Earth Innovation Institute

Tathiana Bezerra - tbezerra@earthinnovation.org

Amazon Investor Coalition

Sarah Ingersoll - Sarah@amazoninvestor.org

CERTI Foundation

Janice Rodrigues Maciel - jgm@certi.org.br

Partnerships for Forests

Juliana Tinoco - Juliana.Tinoco@partnershipsforforests.com

You are donating to : Greennature Foundation

How much would you like to donate?
$10 $20 $30
Would you like to make regular donations? I would like to make donation(s)
How many times would you like this to recur? (including this payment) *
Name *
Last Name *
Email *
Phone
Address
Additional Note
paypalstripe
Loading...