Finance Solutions for Nature: Pathways to Returns and Outcomes

Nature is rapidly emerging as a strategic investment frontier and more institutional capital is flowing into new business models. This report provides a practical framework to help institutional investors, banks, asset managers and development actors identify the right finance solutions to unlock investment in nature.

Markets still struggle to consistently reward positive nature outcomes. Unlike climate finance, which has advanced rapidly through decades of policy alignment, nature’s challenges are starker – it remains underpriced, undervalued and underfinanced. This report consolidates guidance on 37 financial solutions to mobilize capital for nature and focuses on 10 priority financial solutions ready to deliver nature outcomes at sufficient scale – with investable returns.

Nature finance will not scale up through one “perfect” solution. A flexible toolkit that deploys a wide spread of solutions is essential to shift markets. Moving from a fragmented landscape of transactions to mature global markets will depend on scaling-up the best of both worlds: the familiarity and liquidity of general-purpose finance combined with the outcome credibility of nature-specific models that deliver positive results for ecosystems.

This report results from a collaboration between the Forum’s Global Future Council on Natural Capital and the Biodiversity Credits and Nature Markets Initiative that is supported by McKinsey & Company.