A cycle of workshops begins to connect companies and land stewardship entities on innovative financing for conservation
Representatives from companies and land stewardship entities will participate in a new series of workshops organized under the LIFE Custodia project. The goal is to promote collaboration in developing real conservation projects through innovative financial instruments aimed at nature conservation.
The program includes workshops with various sectors, such as renewable energy, agri-food, tourism, and the broader business sector. In addition, thematically focused workshops will address topics like water footprint compensation, net biodiversity gain metrics and markets.
NEED FOR INNOVATIVE FINANCING
It is estimated that €200 billion must be mobilized by 2030 for conservation in Europe, according to the UN Global Biodiversity Framework. Given the insufficiency of public funding, engaging the private sector through innovative financial instruments is essential.
This model is particularly relevant in Spain, where most of the territory is privately owned: 40% of the national territory consists of private crops that sustain over 50% of the country’s biodiversity, 30% are pasturelands playing a crucial role in species and habitat conservation, and 70% of forests are privately owned.
The cycle of workshops, organized and led by Fundación Global Nature, a partner in the LIFE Stewardship project, aims to facilitate direct meetings between companies, stewardship entities and rural landowners. The goal is to generate concrete collaboration opportunities and develop measurable, replicable pilot projects.
During the workshops, ongoing success stories will be showcased, and the challenges of scaling these models will be examined, including the need to strengthen collaborative governance, build trust between administrations and landowners, and ensure stable financial mechanisms.
LIFE STEWARDSHIP
The overall aim of the LIFE Stewardship project is to use land stewardship-based approaches to boost collaboration involving public and private entities as well as civil society for nature conservation and restoration in Spain, in the framework of the Europe Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and international agreements.
The project is coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, with the participation of Eurosite, the Forum of Land Stewardship Networks and Entities (FRECT), Global Nature Foundation (FGN), Fernando González Bernáldez/ Europarc-Spain Foundation, SEO/BirdLife and Nature Conservation Network (XCN) as partners. It has the financial contribution of the LIFE Programme of the European Union.