Innovative
Financing
New models for generating revenue are needed if restoration and rewilding are to be achieved at scale.
INNOVATIVE FINANCING
NATURAL STATE is developing and piloting innovative finance mechanisms to help catalyse large-scale nature restoration across Africa and the Global South. These mechanisms are designed to reward measurable outcomes for biodiversity, carbon, water, and human wellbeing, and are anchored in our uKweli Research & Monitoring Portal to strengthen transparency, accountability, and investor confidence.
We work with partners to design, test, and scale these mechanisms, ensuring they are rigorous, practical, and built for real-world adoption.
Plan Vivo Nature Framework
As an approved data analytics provider for the Plan Vivo Nature Framework, NATURAL STATE supports projects seeking accreditation under this respected standard. Using best-in-class science and our uKweli Research & Monitoring Portal, we provide transparent, verifiable data that strengthens credit integrity and project capability.
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FINANCING MECHANISMS
Nature credits
NATURAL STATE’s Nature Credits integrate biodiversity and social wellbeing into the established carbon credit market to ensure robust paths to offtake, while also pioneering the emerging biodiversity credit market. Key initiatives include:
Nature Stewardship Credits (with Social Carbon)
Co-developed with Social Carbon, NSCs are designed to conserve and restore biodiversity while enhancing human wellbeing. They can:
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Integrate biodiversity and wellbeing metrics into carbon projects.
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Operate as standalone biodiversity credits.
Impact bonds
It shift from traditional input-based funding to a pay-for-success structure, aligning economic returns with environmental outcomes. Investors’ appetite for these innovative models is growing exponentially.
Rewilding Units
NS has designed a completely novel crediting mechanism - Rewilding Units - specifically focused on securing new land for conservation. This aligns with global 30x30 objectives and provides funding for the first formative years after a conservation area’s establishment. RUs bridge the upfront funding needs of projects while securing buyer’s interests through an innovative escrow structure that releases payments as pre-agreed milestones are met. We are piloting this new approach with the Orange River Karoo Conservation Area (ORKCA) in southern Namibia, one of the world’s largest and most exciting rewilding projects.
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Integrated Rangeland Solutions
Rangelands are crucial ecosystems that provide carbon storage, water regulation, and habitat for wildlife while supporting hundreds of thousands of livelihoods. NS is partnering with established carbon registries to incorporate relevant grassland methodologies and add biodiversity and social metrics, either as co-benefits or standalone credits. We are also piloting innovative approaches such as regenerative livestock management, biochar, and methane reductions to increase and diversify potential revenue streams in a rangeland context.
Lion Bond
In partnership with Lion Landscapes and WildCru, NATURAL STATE is piloting a human-lion co-existence bond in the Selous-Nyerere landscape of southern Tanzania. This model funds custodian conservation, which reduces human-wildlife conflict and supports coexistence. Initially focused on lions, the approach provides a scalable framework adaptable to other species and geographies.
Whale Bond
With Conservation Alpha, the Canadian Wildlife Federation, and Blue Bond Accelerator, NATURAL STATE is designing a bond to reduce whale entanglement in fishing gear along Canada’s east coast. Inspired by the Rhino Bond, which was launched by the World Bank in 2022, this bond seeks to address a key drivers of whale mortality: entanglement in fishing gear. Once proven, we hope to replicate this model along Africa’s coastlines and beyond, to bolster investment in whale conservation and sustainable fisheries.
For all our nature financing products, we ensure that the community engagement and buy-in processes are ethical and that project funds are distributed equitably and transparently.