The Restoration Seed Capital Facility supports Arbaro Advisors and Ecotierra
Frankfurt, November 9th, 2021. The Restoration Seed Capital Facility (RSCF) has approved Arbaro Advisors and Ecotierra as its first two partners to qualify for the Facility’s support. The co-funding provided by the Facility will boost the efforts of these fund managers in developing a pipeline of investments in nature-based solutions that contribute to forest restoration. The combination of outright and reimbursable grants provided by the Facility will accelerate the deployment of private capital to forest restoration, in contribution to the Bonn Challenge and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
About Arbaro
Arbaro Advisors GmbH is an investment advisory company with unmatched combination of expertise in impact investing and forestry management, which enables them to select and develop sustainable forestry investments that maximize environmental, social, and economic benefits for all stakeholders.
RSCF support is provided to Arbaro Advisors to develop the pipeline of projects of the Arbaro Fund, a private equity fund that invests in sustainable forestry in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. By establishing a renewable resource through sustainably managed, FSC-certified forest plantations, Arbaro provides significant climate change mitigation and adaptation benefits in its target countries. Over its lifetime, Arbaro aims to contribute to sequestering up to 20 million tons of CO2.
Arbaro Fund is furthermore set to create up to 5,000 new jobs and contribute to knowledge and skill development in the rural areas in which it operates. This combination of environmental and social benefits makes an Arbaro Fund investment a generator of positive impact on both a local and a global level while earning solid financial returns.
Hanna Skelly, Managing Director of Arbaro Advisors, said: “Arbaro is pleased to be one of the first partners in this important facility. Among other things, the facility provides significant risk sharing support for the development of projects that would otherwise not be ready for investment and as such could not be considered by a private investor. Forest and landscape restoration is critical in achieving the climate targets and investments in the sector are desperately needed.”
About Ecotierra
Ecotierra is a project developer and investment adviser to the Urapi Sustainable Land Use Fund. This fund capitalises on the Ecotierra team’s 20 years of experience working with coffee and cocoa cooperatives. Ecotierra was set up in 2011 to implement innovative land-use models that improve farmers’ revenues and livelihoods while restoring and protecting the ecosystems in which they produce.
Étienne Desmarais, CEO of Ecotierra, said: “At Ecotierra, we aim to build and contribute to long lasting partnerships with local producer’s organizations for the sustainable development of communities in order to fight land-degradation and climate change. We are delighted to partner with the Restoration Seed Capital Facility in this way.”
The Urapi Fund aims to triple the household incomes of producers forming part of the cooperatives the Fund partners with. It is further anticipated that 200 jobs will be created and 25,000 hectares will be reforested through the Fund’s investments. Overall, the impact of the funded projects will lead to over 7 million tons in captured and reduced CO2 emissions.
The funding provided by the Restoration Seed Capital Facility will enable both partners to broaden the scope of geographies and project types that they consider for investment and accelerate the process of identification and development of investment opportunities with positive contributions to forest restoration.
About the Facility
Supported by Germany and Luxembourg, and implemented by UNEP and the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, the Restoration Seed Capital Facility is a unique initiative to promote private investment in forest restoration, contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Bonn Challenge, and the Rio Conventions, in particular the Paris Climate agreement, Land Degradation Neutrality targets, and the Aichi biodiversity targets.
The Restoration Seed Capital Facility aims to scale up forest and landscape restoration significantly during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. It was launched in October 2020 and is open to applications from any fund manager or investment adviser developing or running an investment vehicle targeting restoration-aligned activities. Arbaro Advisors and Ecotierra are the first applicants to have successfully completed the application process and have moved on to become a cooperating partner benefiting from the Facility’s support.
For media enquiries, please contact: blin@un.org
For RSCF related questions, please contact: info@restorationfacility.org
