Financing Blue Carbon with Insurance

Mangroves in the Philippines. Photo by Esther Anne F. Bueno.

The Restoration Insurance Service Company (RISCO) is an innovative finance project aimed at investing in blue carbon in marine and coastal ecosystems, particularly in the Philippines. The project is part of the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance and aims to protect 4,000 hectares of mangrove forest through conservation and restoration efforts in partnership with local communities.

RISCO’s innovative approach involves identifying areas where mangroves provide high flood reduction benefits and modeling the value of those benefits.

This innovative finance project highlights the potential for financial solutions to address environmental challenges, such as the protection and restoration of mangrove ecosystems. By partnering with local communities and generating revenue from blue carbon credits, RISCO aims to create a sustainable model for mangrove conservation and restoration.

Learn more here.

Harrison Ford at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019

Harrison Ford speaking at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019:

“We need to protect what we have. We need to restore what we have lost. We need to defund the mechanisms, the perverse tax subsidies, the lending policies, and the institutional investments that fuel deforestation. It is understood that the protection and preservation of forest, can achieve at least 30% of the emission reduction we need to protect the planet.”

See more in this video.

50-year moratorium on deep sea mining in Wallis & Futuna

Map of Wallis & Futuna. © Conservation International

Recognizing the bold commitment made by the Territorial Assembly of French territory Wallis et Futuna (led by President David Vergé) who passed a bill calling for France to conserve 100% of their maritime zone (265,000 square km) as a protected area for sustainable natural resource management. The move also called for the establishment of a 50-year moratorium on deep-sea mining. Most of the territory’s marine realm is formally classified as Ecologically and Biologically Significant under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), featuring a wide range of charismatic species.

Fires in Amazonia

Sunrise from a canopy tower overlooking the Amazon Forest. Photo by Luana Luna.

The amazon often referred to as the ‘lungs of the Earth’ as more than 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced there. News of the 2019 fire season in Amazonia has made headlines around the world, but there’s more to the story.

Find out more on analysis by Conservation International that is revealing where the fires are and why that matters.

Marine Protected Area in the Kingdom of Fishes, Indonesia

Map of Marine Protected Area in Kaimana, West Papua. © Conservation International

This month, nearly 500,000 ha of Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Kaimana – the Kingdom of Fishes – in West Papua, Indonesia were formally protected by the Indonesian Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, securing the MPA at the highest level. Located in the southern region of the Bird’s Heads Seascapes, sitting at the centre of Coral Triangle (often referred as Amazon of the ocean, one of the world’s richest areas of marine life), Kaimana has the highest fish biomass in the Coral Triangle.