Financiarisation de la nature

This report by Friends of the Earth International critiques the 'financialization of nature,' arguing that redefining ecosystems as a set of quantifiable 'environmental services' serves to maintain industrial growth and corporate profits rather than protecting biodiversity. The author contends that market-based mechanisms, such as biodiversity offsets and carbon credits, provide a 'permit to pollute' and lead to the dispossession of indigenous peoples and local communities.

• The 'financialization of nature' involves redefining the natural world as a collection of quantifiable and measurable 'environmental services' that can be divided into units to generate profit through the sale of rights. This approach is central to the 'Green Economy' and 'green growth' concepts, which the report argues do not challenge the necessity of growth but instead use financial jargon to make nature serve capital.
• Market-based environmental services are criticized as tools for cost reduction for industrial production. By using compensation credits, companies can bypass ecological regulations and continue destructive activities in one location by paying to protect or restore a similar service elsewhere. The report asserts that these credits effectively become a 'permit to pollute' or destroy nature.
• The report argues that the financialization of nature leads to the marginalization and dispossession of indigenous peoples and traditional communities. New property titles associated with commercialized environmental services can reduce community control over their territories and lead to increased violence and inequality, often benefiting local elites over marginalized groups.
• Evidence is provided that nature compensation programs have failed to stop biodiversity loss. In the European Union, 52% of species are threatened with extinction and 65% of natural environments risk disappearing despite the existence of such mechanisms. In Germany, over 70 hectares of land are sterilized daily by urban expansion and infrastructure.
• The report highlights the volatility of economic valuation; when the market value of a specific service drops, the incentive to protect the ecosystem disappears. An example from Costa Rica shows that forests protecting bees for coffee plantations were cleared when the owner switched to pineapple production, as pineapples do not require bee pollination and the forest's economic value dropped from $60,000 per year to zero.
• Specific examples of financialization are cited: Brazil's 2012 Forest Code allows landowners to buy 'forest restoration credits' (traded at the Bolsa Verde in Rio de Janeiro) instead of restoring illegally cleared land; in Australia, the Murray-Darling basin water market transformed rivers into units 'administered as a giant water pipe'; and in France, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) uses biodiversity offsets in Camargue to facilitate urban projects like the A65 motorway.

APA

Kill, J. (2015). Financiarisation de la nature. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ATI-financiarisation-de-la-nature-FR.pdf

Chicago

Kill, Jutta. Financiarisation de la nature. Friends of the Earth International, 2015. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ATI-financiarisation-de-la-nature-FR.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kill |first1=Jutta |title=Financiarisation de la nature |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=2015 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ATI-financiarisation-de-la-nature-FR.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kill2015financiarisation, author = {Kill, Jutta}, title = {{Financiarisation de la nature}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2015}, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ATI-financiarisation-de-la-nature-FR.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }