The Restoration Seed Capital Facility Welcomes Natural Investments as Partner to Accelerate Private Investment in Forest and Landscape Restoration
Frankfurt and Geneva, 5 February 2026
The Restoration Seed Capital Facility (RSCF) is pleased to announce a new partnership with Natural Investments, an impact-first investment platform focused on mobilising private capital into landscape conservation and restoration at scale.
Through this partnership, RSCF will provide financial support to expand Natural Investments’ efforts to attract private investment into early-stage, high-potential forest and landscape restoration opportunities. RSCF’s co-financing will contribute to developing a strong, investable and replicable pipeline of landscape-level projects, safeguarding critical wilderness areas across Southern Africa.
Ivo Mulder, Head of the UN Environment Programme’s Climate Finance Unit said: “Restored landscapes are strategic investment opportunities, yet they remain largely locked out of private nature finance. Natural Investments is addressing this gap through an innovative business model that monetizes conservation benefits in Southern Africa. RSCF support is necessary because generating cash flows from investing in natural assets is still regarded as ‘business unusual’. We are therefore happy to be able to expand RSCF’s support in Africa and help catalyze investment in an underserved region.”
About Natural Investments
Part of the Natural Capital group, Natural Investments is an impact-first investment platform, focusing on directing capital into conservation projects that restore and protect biodiversity, enhance local livelihoods, and generate sustainable, long-term returns for investors across Africa. Natural Investments’ approach positions natural capital as a strategic and investable asset class, unlocking private capital for conservation and restoration projects that are typically undervalued, underpriced and underfinanced.
Natural Investments is advancing a diversified portfolio of conservation and restoration projects covering more than 1 million hectares. These projects target outcomes such as carbon sequestration and avoidance, biodiversity recovery and enhancement of local livelihoods, while building commercially viable investment structures capable of attracting private and institutional investors.
Through RSCF support, Natural Investments aims to scale an innovative, market-driven model for restoration and conservation finance, allowing investors to allocate capital based on specific geographies, conservation priorities, and risk-return preferences. RSCF’s support will help showcase landscapes as compelling investment opportunities by absorbing early-stage development risk, strengthening project bankability and enabling broader investor participation.
Natural Investments’ work will initially focus on four Southern Africa countries – Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia – that offer an enabling business and policy environment, large intact ecosystems with strong conservation and restoration potential, and diversified, revenue-generating pathways that support scalable investments.
Anne Cathrine Garde, Chief Investment Officer at Natural Investments, said “RSCF’s support is catalytic in helping us transform globally significant landscapes into investable opportunities. Long overlooked by markets and often significantly mismanaged, these landscapes require strategic development to unlock their investment potential. This partnership turns conservation ambition into investable reality and accelerates the flow of private capital into nature at scale.”
Natural Investments is a division of Natural Capital – a conservation investment and management group dedicated to safeguarding Africa’s most valuable wilderness areas. For more information, please visit Natural Capital’s website or contact the team at contact@naturalinvestments.earth
About the Restoration Seed Capital Facility
Supported by the governments of Germany and Luxembourg and implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, the Restoration Seed Capital Facility is a unique initiative designed to catalyse investment in forest and landscape restoration. The Facility contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and supports the objectives of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the Bonn Challenge, and the Rio Conventions, including the Paris Agreement, Land Degradation Neutrality targets, and global biodiversity goals.
The Restoration Seed Capital Facility aims to significantly scale up forest and landscape restoration during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030). Launched in October 2020, the Facility is open to applications from fund managers and project developers running investment vehicles or projects targeting restoration-aligned activities. For more information, please visit the Restoration Seed Capital Facility website or contact the team at info@restorationfacility.org
