IUCN is seeking expressions of interest from prospective investment managers to implement the CPIC Conservation Finance Initiative – a GEF-financed project aimed at increasing the flow of investments with global biodiversity conservation benefits. The call for expressions of interest is advertised in the Currently Running Tenders section of the IUCN website, and is open until July 8, 2019.
Led by IUCN as an implementing agency for the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), CPIC will launch the Conservation Finance Initiative in the summer of 2019. With GEF-funded non-grant mechanism (US$ 8M), supported by The Rockefeller Foundation’s grant making mechanisms for investment proposal development (US$ 2M), the Initiative will make blended grant and non-grant funding available to encourage blended finance approaches to biodiversity conservation investments, and get conservation project ideas into investability. With the support of the Investment Manager, it is expected that the available funding from GEF and The Rockefeller Foundation will leverage an additional US$ 50M in private sector investment and serve as a unique learning and knowledge building opportunity for conservation finance and the CPIC community. The grant and reimbursable funds, provided by the Initiative, will be used to provide technical support, loans, equity stakes, credit guarantees and other essential pre-development and de-risking components to mitigate the barriers that have traditionally prevented project developers from attracting private investment at sufficient scale to achieve high conservation impact while also delivering appropriate risk-adjusted financial returns.
The Initiative is seeking to partner with an Investment Manager to:
- Set up and carry out the selection process for investable projects in coordination with the Investment, Committee of the Initiative and The Rockefeller Foundation,
- Carry out screening and due diligence,
- Manage the assets of the Initiative in accordance with the stated investment goals,
- Provide special assistance to the Initiative with respect to investment, management, servicing the Initiative’s Investment Committee, and
- Participate in knowledge generation and M&E function of the Initiative.
The ultimate expected outcomes from the Initiative are:
- 30-60,000 ha of deforested and degraded landscapes under restoration,
- 10,000,000 ha of terrestrial, marine and coastal habitat with improved management integrating conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
