Nature for Justice
Because people and nature can’t wait
The Opportunity
The climate crisis is disrupting livelihoods, supply chains, food security, and the health and welfare of over a billion people, particularly in frontline communities.
These same communities can be key partners in addressing climate change and restoring nature. However, too often, conservation and carbon projects ask community partners to shoulder significant risk for an inadequate and inequitable share of the project’s financial returns.
In 2020, we founded Nature For Justice to harness nature-based solutions and carbon markets for climate justice — creating projects that treat communities as true partners and create long-term value for both people and nature.
Our Mission
We harness nature-based solutions (NbS) to benefit frontline communities confronting the climate crisis. In every project, we seek to ensure fairness to communities, financial viability and sustainability, and a focus on long-term benefits for people and nature.
What We Do
- Advance climate resilience, in partnership with local communities
- Mobilize blended finance for high-impact, community-driven NbS projects
- Originate and co-create NbS and carbon projects that channel long-term, sustainable finance to frontline communities
Our Approach
Partner for Impact
To scale our impact and de-risk complex projects, we bridge the gap between investors, communities, and technical partners. Together, we co-create projects that incorporate NbS best practice, are financially sustainable, and reflect community realities and aspirations.
Engage Local Partners with Established Trust Networks
To build trust and expand our reach, we work through networks of local partner organizations who have demonstrated, existing trust relationships with target communities. With these partners—and guided by performance-based contracts—we execute concrete plans that ensure accountability, reward results, and build long-term capacity.
Focus on Climate Justice
Across every N4J project, we focus on fairness, transparency, and ensuring participating communities receive a significant share of a project’s financial and non-monetary benefits.
Ecosystem Services for Resilience
Our projects look to restore, conserve, and protect ecosystem services as a key step toward greater resilience. Carbon financing is one key tool to get us there.
Braid Western Science with Traditional Knowledge Systems
In the contexts in which we work, success demands that a project is informed by best practice in conservation and climate science; backed by quality, actionable data; and informed and shaped by Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Indigenous Ways of Knowing. We bring these different knowledge systems into constructive conversation to shape projects that last.
Invest in the Leadership and Capacity of Local Partners
We see local ownership and capacity as key to a project’s long-term impact, legitimacy, and success.
Sharing Our Social Safeguarding Expertise
Effective social safeguarding requires meticulous planning and execution. Nature For Justice offers a global team with extensive experience helping local peoples and project developers to co-design and deliver socially just, context-relevant projects that protect nature and improve local communities’ livelihoods and well-being. Our regionally-based team leaders in Africa, Canada, the USA, and Central America, combined with strong regional partner networks, allow us to deliver bespoke support packages for projects worldwide.
