Sustainable Finance

Sustainable finance is essential to support and scale ecosystem restoration. ERIP supports innovative financial mechanisms—like Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), blended finance, and community-driven businesses that channel long-term investment into nature-positive outcomes. These approaches ensure restoration efforts are economically and socially viable across the 20 participating countries.

Photo credit: © Conservation International/photo by Erickson Tabayag

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Why Sustainable Finance Matters

Restoring ecosystems requires long-term financial commitment. Without sustainable finance, restoration efforts often stall after initial implementation. By mobilizing diverse funding sources and making restoration investable, we can ensure long-lasting impact for people and nature - aligning financial flows with climate, biodiversity and development targets.  

Photo credit: © Joshua Trujillo, Starbucks

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ERIP’s role & strategy

ERIP helps countries address sustainable financing through technical support, capacity building and innovation. This includes providing guidance to design and pilot financial mechanisms such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) and developing a Restoration Calculator to estimate the costs and benefits of different restoration approaches across ecosystems. Through knowledge sharing and technical assistance, ERIP strengthens countries’ ability to fund restoration beyond the life of the program. 

Photo credit: © Conservation International/photo by Russell A. Mittermeier

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Our Vision for Success

  • Development and piloting of diverse financial mechanisms for restoration across the 20 countries
  • Building financial and innovation capacities with decision-support tools like the Restoration Calculator.
  • Aligning restoration finance plans with national development and climate goals
  • Long-term funding secured to support and scale restoration  

Photo credit: © Cristina Mittermeier

Looking Ahead

The program promotes sustainable finance and the development of financial mechanisms to attract diverse funding sources, de-risk investments, and incentivize private sector engagement. Financial mechanisms are designed to be inclusive, ensuring that restoration investments benefit those most affected by ecosystem degradation. 

Decision-support tools like the Restoration Calculator aim to help countries assess the viability and impact of different restoration strategies. These innovations aim to strengthen national capacities, align restoration finance with policy frameworks, and scale up nature-positive investments globally.  By doing so, ERIP supports a shift from short-term project cycles to enduring financial resilience. 

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    Launching the Global Coordination Project for ERIP

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Resources

Resources

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  • Standards of Practice to Guide Ecosystem Restoration
    Guidelines

    Standards of Practice to Guide Ecosystem Restoration

    These standards bring together best practices from a wide range of restoration activities, including sustainable agriculture and ecological restoration. It was developed through a global collaboration led by the Taskforce on Best Practices, established under the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

  • Pes
    Case Studies

    Protecting people and the environment: Lessons learnt from Brazil's Bolsa Verde, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, South Africa and 56 other experiences

    Overview of 56 integrated social-environmental PES programmes in 19 Global South countries

  • CI ppc
    Reports

    PPC Guidelines: TREE RESTORATION MONITORING FRAMEWORK: FIELD TEST EDITION

    The PPC Program’s monitoring framework tracks progress by measuring changes in ecosystem integrity, socio-economics, and carbon sequestration linked to its interventions