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Conservation Finance

Conservation Finance marshals the power of private wealth to address conservation needs by developing investment products that generate profits and deliver environmental returns. This working group focuses on creating new, long-term, diversified sources of revenues supporting biodiversity conservation through innovative investment products, providing financial returns, and targeting private investors. Specific challenges to be addressed include green infrastructure and sustainable timberland, agriculture, and fisheries.

Cornell Atkinson - Conservation Finance

Projects

Nighttime view of the Earth, centered on the US, shown behind a network diagram

Global Climate Finance and Risks

Addressing climate-related financial risks will require transparency to combat greenwashing, clear policy guidance, and scaling of finance for low-carbon investments. Watch videos from the first-ever Global Climate Finance and Risks conference, held Oct. 25, 2024. Jointly hosted by Cornell Atkinson, the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, and the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Financial Research (OFR), keynote speakers included Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Eric Usher, head of the UN Environment Programme.

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Cornell Atkinson - Regenerative Agriculture Project

Regenerative Agriculture

Accelerating adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across the Great Lakes basin by developing transition loan products and services to facilitate the transition from conventional to regenerative agriculture.

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whale in ocean

Innovative Finance for Conservation

Published in fall 2020, the ESA Issues in Ecology Research features an interdisciplinary and international team of scientists, practitioners, finance specialists and lawyers who explores how private investments can generate financial returns while achieving positive conservation outcomes. The special issue, featuring Cornell authors Amanda Rodewald (Lab of Ornithology) and John Tobin (Dyson) was published in fall 2020.

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Air pollution in Shanghai, China

Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation

CPIC is a global multi-stakeholder initiative focused on enabling conditions that support a material increase in private, return-seeking investment in conservation. Cornell Atkinson is an active member of the coalition.

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midwestern farm

Little Book of Investing in Nature

Read an overview of the area of biodiversity finance at a time when governments and international negotiators are urgently seeking pragmatic solutions for the twin crises of climate change and the loss of nature. Current estimates suggest there is a global shortfall of USD 824 billion. The Little Book provides a simple guide for policymakers and investors as to how this shortfall can be overcome. Cornell Atkinson supported this publication.

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crop field at sunset

El pequeño libro de las inversiones para la naturaleza

Una guía sencilla para financiar la vida en la Tierra. Read the Little Book of Investing in Nature, now available in Spanish

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Institutional Investments in Tropical Forest Conservation and Restoration

Financing Nature

This report, co-authored by Cornell Atkinson, The Nature Conservancy, and The Paulson Institute, lays out the economic case for protecting nature, examines the underlying market failures that hasten global biodiversity loss, and indicates several policy interventions and changes needed to halt biodiversity loss.

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Financing Nature Presentation

Watch a discussion of the Financing Nature report findings with report authors and experts from the conservation finance sector, recorded on October 14, 2020.

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spring scenic

The Conservation Finance Working Group

Learn more about conservation finance faculty, projects, and courses at Cornell University.

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