Since 2020, the Restoration Seed Capital Facility (RSCF) has supported impact fund managers working to set up and manage investment vehicles dedicated to forest landscape restoration (FLR)[1]. With changes in the market, particularly linked to renewed interest in nature-based carbon and biodiversity credits, dedicated project developers have increasingly provided an additional conduit for private investments in nature.
In this blog, we explore how the landscape of actors active in nature investments has diversified in recent years and how RSCF leverages this evolution to accelerate impact and catalyze private finance.
Market Evolution: A New Landscape for Nature Investments
When RSCF was established in 2020, nature investment opportunities were still limited. Impact fund managers dominated the market, operating mainly through closed-end private equity structures with 10–15-year lifetimes and blind-pool commitments. Because few investable projects existed, many fund managers had to develop their own projects from the ground up—a time-consuming and risky process that added complexity, but was necessary for the market’s early stage. RSCF provides catalytic financial support to help these fund managers undertake such early-stage project development.
As the sector matured over the past five years, new business models have emerged that are complementary to impact funds. One of the most notable such models is direct investment through project developers. These developers play many of the same roles as impact fund managers: originating and designing projects but also raising capital and managing portfolios of forest landscape restoration projects over the long term.
RSCF Extends Eligibility to Project Developers to Catalyze Greater Impact
Facing many of the same barriers that affect fund managers when developing their investments, project developers are also affected by limited available funding for the early stages of new project development. To help overcome this gap and enable more projects to reach implementation, RSCF is expanding its eligibility to projects developers who have demonstrated the ability to raise capital as well as originate and manage portfolios of high-integrity forest-related projects with strong environmental and social benefits.
By supporting the early work of these project developers, while also continuing to support impact fund managers, RSCF aims to stimulate the accelerated deployment of private capital in projects that maintain, restore and sustainably manage forest landscapes, in line with the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises.
The Role of Project Developers in Driving Nature Impact
Project developers bring a significant contribution to the sector, one that is deeply complementary to that of impact fund managers.
Technical strength that is essential at the earliest stages
Most project developers possess deep technical expertise in ecology, agronomy, forestry, or carbon accounting. This skillset gives them a strong advantage in identifying and designing early-stage opportunities, helping to expand interventions that protect and restore forests.
Ability to steward long-term value creation
Unlike closed-end funds, which must return capital to investors after a defined period, project developers can tap into more flexible and long-term structures that enable them to manage assets over the full lifecycle of a restoration project—ideally 30 to 40 years. This timeframe aligns far better with the biological and economic reality of forest landscape restoration interventions, where ecological and financial value grows gradually.
Project developers who are able to raise long term funding therefore reduce the investment exit pressure by offering continuity, stability, and patience—key ingredients for long-term environmental and social success of forest restoration interventions.
Offering flexibility to a broader investor base
Project-level investment structures allow investors to choose specific assets, tailor their impact goals, and secure in-kind outputs such as carbon credits. This model attracts players, such as corporate carbon credit off-takers, who are interested in claiming specific high-integrity impacts and therefore might not be willing to enter the sector through traditional fund structures which aggregate multiple investors.
Broadening RSCF’s eligibility criteria to include project developers is not simply a response to market trends; it is a strategic step aiming to accelerate forest landscape restoration and unlock new capital flows towards it.
[1] Forest landscape restoration (FLR) is the ongoing process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded forest landscapes. FLR is more than just planting trees – it is restoring a whole landscape to meet present and future needs and to offer multiple benefits and land uses over time. (IUCN, https://iucn.org/our-work/topic/forests/forest-landscape-restoration)
