A group of five companies and organisations has launched an accelerator to attract investment in high-quality biodiversity projects across Africa, with a first call for proposals open until late next month.
Biodiversity Investments – Researcher & Accelerator (BIRA) will be hosted by the African Leadership University School of Wildlife Conservation and co-funded by global entrepreneur firm Dalberg and FSD Africa Investments, with contributions from biodiversity specialist firms CreditNature and Xilva.
The initiative will work to develop ecosystem measurement frameworks suited to the African reality, including user-friendly investor metrics, as well as offer grants to organisations that provide comprehensive assessments and monitoring systems to understand the environmental impact of pipeline companies, according to Dalberg’s website.
“Further, BIRA will engage investors through the grant which will be used to co-develop financing propositions and facilitate investment memoranda and marketing to promote credits,” it said.
“Through such a structured approach, the funding can prepare project developers to be investor ready whilst developing a pipeline of biodiversity deals in Africa and attract investors to the sector.”
In a comment on LinkedIn, CreditNature CEO and founder Cain Blythe said BIRA has been designed to “develop a credible approach to accelerating biodiversity and ecosystem measurements as a core offering for investable nature-based solution projects in Africa”.
One of CreditNature’s contributions to BIRA will be to apply its Natural Asset Recovery Investment Analytics (NARIA) framework.
“We’re offering African projects a high integrity, science-based, and scalable approach to measuring ecosystem integrity,” said Blythe.
“For projects in Africa, this means setting robust ecosystem baselines and forecasting unique recovery and rewilding strategies, all while preparing for potential investors.”
BIRA will be accepting applications for its first round of grants until Oct. 20, without specifying the amount available.
“Applicants must have biodiversity projects in Africa, have completed a business plan or feasibility study, and look to attract investors/buyers,” Dalberg said.
“BIRA will support select projects in conducting assessments of their biodiversity impact and investor readiness, and it will help showcase investor-ready projects to potential funders.”
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