How We Work

Private Sector Solutions for Climate & Nature

A trail leads through the forest at Cancochet Brook Preserve in Rhode Island.
Canonchet Brook Preserve Canonchet Brook Preserve in Rhode Island is part of the Borderlands Dark Sky Trail System. © Tim Mooney

TNC’s Impact Finance and Markets (IFM) Team

Market leaders and policymakers increasingly recognize the private sector’s vital role in achieving a nature-positive, net-zero future. The Nature Conservancy’s IFM team leverages in-house expertise to collaborate with companies and investors, advancing impact investing and sustainable market solutions that align financial performance with environmental impact. IFM helps unlock private capital for nature.

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Check out our latest thinking and real-world solutions to some of the most complex challenges facing people and the planet today.

Catamaran navigating surf in tropical bay
Nelayan bermain ombak Fishermen accustomed to making their living at sea, play with the waves as they prepare to go out to sea, trying to overcome the waves that are blocking them. © Fandi Dawaradji/TNC Photo Contest 2019

Unlocking Private Capital for a Nature-Positive Future

As the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises intensifies, the private sector is increasingly recognized as a key player in delivering the capital, innovation, and scale needed to meet global sustainability goals. TNC understands that public funding and philanthropy alone cannot close the financing gap for nature and climate. That’s why the Impact Finance and Markets team is working at the intersection of conservation and capital markets to unlock private investment for high-impact, nature-based solutions.

The private sector’s role is not just about funding—it’s about transforming business models to integrate sustainability into core operations. TNC’s experts help companies, industries, and policy makers understand the financial and material risks and innovative opportunities associated with biodiversity loss and climate change and supports them in developing forward-looking strategies that value nature.

TNC’s approach is grounded in science, informed by decades of on-the-ground conservation experience, and designed to deliver measurable outcomes for both nature and people. TNC collaborates with investors, financial institutions, corporations, and governments to design and implement innovative financial solutions that channel capital into conservation efforts. These include Nature Bonds, blended finance structures, impact investing, sustainable agriculture and forestry investments, and supporting the development of high-integrity carbon markets that incentivize emissions reductions and ecosystem restoration.

This work is especially critical in emerging markets, where natural resources are abundant, but the funding and tools needed to protect these resources may be limited. The team supports projects that deliver climate resilience, protect biodiversity, and improve livelihoods working across corporate and investor sectors to embed sustainability into core strategies and operations. From regenerative agriculture in the U.S. and Latin America to conservation tourism in Africa, TNC’s impact investing initiatives are demonstrating that conservation can be both financially viable and socially inclusive.

The Impact Finance and Markets team is also helping to lead a transition toward a low-carbon, nature-positive future by advancing robust carbon credit standards and nature-based carbon projects ensuring that carbon markets contribute meaningfully to climate and nature goals; by building the science-informed financial infrastructure, private market collaborations, and investment pipelines needed to scale conservation finance; and by pioneering sovereign debt solutions – such as Nature Bonds – that align national financial priorities with conservation outcomes.

The path to a thriving planet runs through the private sector, and with the right tools and incentives, businesses and investors can be powerful allies in securing a sustainable future for all.

IFM Leadership Team

IFM Advisory Board Directory

Our Goals for 2030

TNC has set ambitious goals over the next decade to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss. Achieving these goals is a massive undertaking that requires the collaboration of countless partners, communities, funders, governments, and businesses. We use scientific and market expertise to develop innovative conservation approaches, which can be scaled up to achieve system-wide change.

Neither TNC nor any of its affiliates are registered, or intend to register, as an Investment Adviser under the U.S. Investment Advisors Act of 1940, as amended, or similar laws of any other country or jurisdiction. TNC does not engage in activities that could subject it (or any affiliate or subsidiary) to any regulation under relevant securities or investment adviser regulations. TNC is not a broker or dealer of securities and does not engage in brokering or dealing activities. The information provided by TNC does not constitute any offer or a recommendation to buy, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any particular security or other financial product.