The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
“Our Riverwoods Investment Readiness grants underscore the commitment of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to support organisations explore innovative ways of funding ecological priorities such as natural flood management, water quality, carbon sequestration, and restoration of biodiversity. We’re excited by the potential of these initiatives to drive meaningful change and serve as models for financing nature recovery efforts across Scotland.” Simon Wightman
As a Riverwoods Investment Readiness Pioneers project, we aim to bring blended (public and private) finance into nature restoration projects in the catchment in ways that deliver environmental, economic and social impact and as part of our design stage, which ran from July 2023, to July 2024, an assessment of the four principal payment mechanisms currently available in both the public and private sector was undertaken:
- Investors – cover the upfront costs of the project in return for either equity and/or a profit share on the project
- Buyers – provide upfront funding for the project in return for credits that the project delivers, at a fixed price
- Philanthropy – donations that can be given from a business as a grant, through corporate social responsibility and/or environmental, social and governance funds
- Community Crowdfunding & Shares – provide investment for a return from local citizens, community anchor organisations or businesses
The Steering Group have given a very clear steer that with regard to the private sector, local, regional and national businesses and/or business interests would be preferred partners in the project. The possibility this would give to having a mutually beneficial relationship would be much greater than financial institutions and corporate entities headquartered many miles away from the landscape this project was focusing on.
The Steering Group also agreed a general set of ethics that private sector funders would need to meet to be involved in the RECRI project, agreeing in principal to follow the ethics charter laid out by Revere and that full due diligence should be undertaken for any private sector funder that the project progresses into negotiations with.
If you are interested in finding out more about the RECRI project and our plans to build a Tayside wide nature finance platform, please get in touch.