NATURE FOR SALE

The report argues that the 'financialization of nature'—the process of turning ecological functions into tradeable monetary units—primarily serves corporate interests rather than conservation. It details how companies in extractive industries, aviation, and construction use biodiversity offsets to bypass environmental regulations and greenwash destructive activities. The document also highlights the emergence of a 'new conservation industry' comprising NGOs, think tanks, and financial institutions that promote these market-based approaches. Finally, it contends that private sector investment in conservation is significantly over-hyped, serving as a facade to secure public subsidies and avoid stringent environmental laws.

• Financialization of nature involves converting natural functions, such as carbon storage and water purification, into monetary units and tradeable products like carbon or biodiversity credits.
• Corporations use financialization to reduce the burden of environmental compliance, allowing them to destroy protected habitats by promising compensation elsewhere.
• The 'natural wealth' accounting approach allows companies to inflate their balance sheets by including hypothetical monetary values for nature, which can increase their borrowing capacity.
• Corporate influence on environmental policy is often exerted through non-public forums and 'revolving doors' between business and the think tanks that design financialization policies.
• A new conservation industry has emerged, consisting of specialized NGOs, standard setters, and credit brokers who profit from the creation and validation of offset markets.
• Major conservation NGOs, such as The Nature Conservancy and WWF, have adopted the financialization approach, which the report argues stifles critical debate and provides corporate greenwashing.
• Private sector investment in biodiversity conservation is significantly smaller than promoted by the industry, with much of the 'impact investment' actually going toward industrial agriculture and forestry.
• Extractive industries, particularly mining and oil and gas, use biodiversity offsetting to obtain licenses for projects in 'critical habitats' that would otherwise be inaccessible.
• The aviation sector has developed its own offsetting scheme, CORSIA, to avoid more stringent regulations, though the report claims it is insufficient as it offsets permanent emissions with impermanent credits.

APA

Hall, R., & Mariën, N. (n.d.). NATURE FOR SALE. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Friends-of-the-Earth_Nature-for-Sale-report_EN.pdf

Chicago

Hall, Ronnie, and Nele Mariën. NATURE FOR SALE. Friends of the Earth International, n.d. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Friends-of-the-Earth_Nature-for-Sale-report_EN.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hall |first1=Ronnie |last2=Mariën |first2=Nele |title=NATURE FOR SALE |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Friends-of-the-Earth_Nature-for-Sale-report_EN.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hallndnature, author = {Hall, Ronnie and Mariën, Nele}, title = {{NATURE FOR SALE}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Friends-of-the-Earth_Nature-for-Sale-report_EN.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }