Nature-Themed Instruments: Unlocking Capital for Nature Conservation in Latin America.
Co-authored by Romina Reversi, Head of Sustainable Investment Banking Americas at Crédit Agricole CIB and Rodrigo Gonzalez, Head of Latin America Debt Capital Markets Origination at Crédit Agricole CIB.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework identifies a $700 billion annual financing gap for biodiversity conservation—even as nature loss threatens food security, water systems, and climate stability. Nature-themed bonds are emerging as a critical tool to close this gap. Defined by the Sustainable Bonds for Nature: A Practitioner's Guide as instruments financing biodiversity, ecosystems, and ecosystem services, these bonds build on the Green and Sustainability Bond Principles. Issuances can finance projects with measurable ecosystem benefits ranging from reforestation and regenerative agriculture to sustainable fisheries and marine habitat restoration.
Latin America: Seizing the Nature Finance Opportunity
Latin America has emerged as a particularly active region for nature-themed financial instruments. Recent sovereign and corporate innovations illustrate the diversity of approaches being deployed. In February 2025, Crédit Agricole CIB acted as Sole Sustainability Structuring Agent for Suzano's biodiversity-linked export pre-payment facility, which supports the creation of ecological corridors connecting native forests fragments. We also assisted Chile in becoming the first sovereign to update its Sustainability-Linked Bond Framework with a two-part biodiversity KPI that measures both the coverage of protected terrestrial and marine areas and the effectiveness of their management.
The region has also seen significant activity in sovereign debt-for-nature swaps. While not new, these structures are scaling significantly, offering debt-distressed emerging markets fiscal relief tied to long-term conservation commitments. Recent transactions in Belize for ocean protection and Ecuador for both Galápagos marine conservation and Amazon terrestrial protection demonstrate this approach.
Market Momentum and Investor Appetite
Investor demand for nature-positive instruments continues to accelerate. The emergence of dedicated biodiversity investment vehicles—such as the Goldman Sachs Biodiversity Bond Fund, which targets corporate green, social, and sustainability bonds aligned with biodiversity-related UN Sustainable Development Goals—signals deepening market maturity in this segment.
Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are critical to scaling this market, providing blended-finance solutions that reduce credit risk and improve pricing for first-time issuers. In Latin America, initiatives such as the Amazonia Bond Issuance Guidelines offer a regional blueprint to mobilize capital for forest restoration, sustainable fisheries, and community-based conservation.
Looking Ahead
Despite this momentum, a critical challenge remains: the standardization of biodiversity metrics and independent verification protocols. Initiatives like the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and market guidance are helping to build market confidence, providing frameworks that enable credible measurement and reporting. As these frameworks mature and investor appetite grows, nature-themed bonds, biodiversity-linked facilities, and debt-for-nature swaps are moving beyond carbon-centric approaches to address biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation—aligning capital with the natural systems that underpin economic stability. In our opinion, we are only at the beginning stages of mobilizing capital toward the nature topic and hope the transactions in the market and guidance will serve as inspiration for future growth.
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