Biosphere aims to protect and restore the environmental health and resilience of agricultural sourcing landscapes in emerging and developing markets. It will also contribute to improved local livelihoods – particularly for women – while safeguarding biodiversity, and supporting business resilience and sustainability.

This innovative nature framework, developed by SEI, will focus on key areas including climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience, biodiversity conservation, and watershed health. This framework will pave the way for investments in nature that drive real, lasting change.

“We applaud the initiative of Clarmondial to go beyond the norm to ensure that context-relevant and robust data is collected and reported on, ensuring consistency in the sector for tracking measurable progress on nature-related investments.  This will be a groundbreaking demonstration that such efforts are both possible and practical, and our team of experts is very excited to contribute to this work and develop a framework that will ultimately enable nature restoration in agricultural value chains to be scaled globally,” said Ed Carr, US Centre Director and Senior Scientist, SEI.

SEI has been instrumental in foundational research on the planetary boundaries framework and advancing the concept of “biosphere integrity”. The institute leads cutting-edge research on  supply chain mapping for nature-based benefits, utilizing mapping tools such as commodity footprints and Trase. These tools provide vital data and metrics for transitioning to sustainable production in global commodity sourcing landscapes. As a respected international non-profit research institute, SEI addresses the world’s most pressing environmental and development challenges by connecting science with policy and practice to drive real-world impact.

“An authentic nature investment strategy necessitates identifying and integrating both standardized and context-specific information. This means working with partners that are mission aligned and have complementary, international, cross-disciplinary expertise. SEI has demonstrated this, and our collaboration will set a new benchmark for nature-forward investment strategies,” said Tanja Havemann, Co-Founder and Director, Clarmondial

Clarmondial will test the nature framework and assess its measurable impact objectives in the Mount Kenya region, in Biosphere’s recently announced pilot transaction executed in collaboration with Rainforest Alliance Kenya and the IKEA Foundation.

The development of the fund has been supported by Convergence, under  the Gender-Responsive Climate Finance Design Funding Window, funded by Global Affairs Canada and by the Business Case for Collective Landscape Action, an initiative supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and executed in collaboration with the Rainforest Alliance (RA), Conservation International and CDP.