In this episode, we explore the cutting-edge of conservation finance with Kevin Webb and Tom Quigley, co-founders of Superorganism - a trailblazing venture capital firm on a mission to catalyze the nature tech revolution. We dive into their unique approach to funding startups that are harnessing the power of technology to tackle the biodiversity crisis head-on. From harnessing mycorrhizal fungi networks to boost timber growth to turning invasive species into sustainable leather, the...

Today we explore the groundbreaking intersection of finance and conservation with Douglas Eger, Chairman and CEO of the Intrinsic Exchange Group. Learn how the innovative concept of Natural Asset Companies (NACs) proposes a new way to value nature, transforming it into a recognized economic asset that benefits both the environment and communities. Through Eger's journey from conserving acres to conceptualizing financial mechanisms for nature, we examine how integrating nature’s value into...

This week, we're joined by Torsten Thiele, the trailblazer in blue infrastructure financing. From the depths of the ocean to the frontlines of urban development, we dive deep into how investing in the sea could be a game-changer. Learn how nature-positive projects, from preserving mangroves to enlarging wetlands, promise resilience and financial rewards. Our discussion takes us to who's catching this wave—from city mayors to development banks. We also tackle the obstacles, like the shortage...

Today we talk with Slav Gachev from The Nature Conservancy to unravel the complexities and triumphs of sustainable debt and conservation finance. Gachev, leading the sustainable debt team, brings a unique perspective shaped by his background in investment banking and emerging market development. He shares his transition from renewable energy and infrastructure financing to his pivotal role at The Nature Conservancy, highlighting the innovative ways in which financial instruments are employed...

In our first episode of the year, David speaks with Sue Stolton and Nigel Dudley, proponents of the protected area movement for more than 20 years and the partners behind Equilibrium Research, a conservation consultancy offering practical solutions to conservation challenges, from concept, to implementation, to evaluation of impact. Sue and Nigel discuss the social origins of protected areas, the evolution of protected areas conservation as a force for climate change mitigation, their...

In this episode, Kim and David sit down with Andrew Bovarnick, the United Nations Development Programme Global Head, Food and Agricultural Commodity Systems (FACS). In this engaging discussion, Andrew shares highlights of his professional journey from researching in the Ecuadorian tropics, to his environmental economics and policy training and now his current priority to bring economic instruments and market-based incentives into the conservation work supported by UNDP. With his focus on...

Episode 10 of 4Nature Podcast, features Edwin Wayonyi, Director of Partnership and Enterprise at the Kenya Wildlife Service. In this episode, Edwin Wayonyi connects with David Meyers about his work engaging with many different stakeholders to find solutions for financing conservation in Kenya. Edwin speaks to the often overlooked importance of domestic tourism as a sustainable source of income to support the parks system and his work to engage the private sector in building up tourism...

In this episode, 4Nature travels to Kuruwitu, Kenya for a conversation with Des Bowden of Oceans Alive about their work to preserve the coastal and marine ecosystems in Kenya. After a morning watching a migrating pod of humpback whales and snorkeling in one of the protected and restored coastal areas, David and Des discuss what began as a conversation with the community elders about native and sustainable fishing traditions and turned into Karutu - a collective which established the first...

A new episode of 4Nature featuring Laure Katz, Vice President of Blue Nature & Co-Lead Implementation Blue Nature Alliance at Conservation International, is now available on all streaming platforms. In discussion with 4Nature Co-host David Meyers, Laure describes how her early love of marine life has powered her career of protecting the ocean. They discuss her work with Indigenous Papuan communities to protect the global epicenter of marine diversity, the Bird's Head Peninsula (BHP), and...

In this episode of 4Nature, Kim speaks with Mariana Bellot, Technical Advisor at The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) providing support to Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Cuba, Chile, Peru and Mexico. Mariana and Kim discuss the importance of joining private and public sectors together under the goal of investing in conservation and restoration efforts, and Mariana shares a few financing strategies gaining traction, such as impact investing, blended finance and thematic bonds (rhino...

In this episode, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, CEO of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), connects with 4Nature Co-host David Meyers, on the importance of including agriculture and conservation in conversations together, the power of public and private divesting from industries and activities that are harmful to the environment, his legacy of transformational environmental leadership in Costa Rica, and his mission to promote policy coherence in GEF’s work around the world.    “All development...

In this week's episode, David and Kim chat with Stacy Jupiter, WCS Wildlife Conservation Society’s Melanesia Regional Director and MacArthur Fellow on how she works directly with indigenous and local communities to facilitate better land management practices that benefit wildlife, marine ecosystems, and human health outcomes. They chat about her landmark Watershed Interventions for Systems Health in Fiji (WISH Fiji) program in Fiji and her landscape-level thinking that links health and nature...

Kim and Kaddu Sebunya, CEO of African Wildlife Foundation, connect about Africa's position on the world stage of conservation and the need to better represent wildlife in for-profit spaces. Kaddu discusses the opportunities for an expanded role of finance in community and ecosystem sustainability across the continent.   "How do we align biodiversity into these conversations? How do we represent wildlife in boardrooms? That is the question conservationists now find ourselves with. How do you...

Meet your hosts, David Meyers and Kim Bonine, as they share their inspiration for creating the 4Nature podcast series. David and Kim chat about what nature means to them and discuss the major themes of their new 4Nature podcast.  "[Humans] have evolved to live in nature and function in nature and losing that nature has had a profound psychological impact on us as individuals and communities." - David Meyers  "Part of the problem might not be that we don't care. Part of the problem is...

David and Kim talk to David Johnson, Senior Lecturer in the Economics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about the management of public goods in the global economy and how we find a balance between individual needs and group success when it comes to nature and the climate crisis. "A reason to be hopeful: we came together to stop a global pandemic..what's stopping us from having the same global response to climate change? ... it may be a moment to be seized." - David Johnson 

David and Nik Sekhran, Chief Conservation Officer at WWF,  speak about what's working in nature finance right now, the importance of including infrastructure into ecosystem services conversations, and the inherent risk mitigation in financing nature.  "Nature-based risks are enormous, we focus predominantly on climate change risks - and they're gargantuan - but nature-based risks are equally so and they can impact economies even faster than climate risks and they can affect all sectors. We...

In a conversation recorded before COP26 in Glasgow 2021, David and Jen Morris, the CEO of The Nature Conservancy, discuss the interconnectedness of nature in public health, economics, and wellbeing, and aligning incentives to bring nature to the forefront of climate change conversations.  "Until we can make that systemic change from it being a environment over here and economic development over here and never the two shall meet when it comes to policies and incentives, we're never going to...