Attracting Private Investment to Landscape Restoration: A Roadmap

This World Resources Institute working paper provides a four-step roadmap for landscape restoration projects to attract private investment between $500,000 and $10 million. It emphasizes the need for restoration leaders to adopt a commercial mindset, develop robust business plans, establish legal investable entities, and use pilot projects and performance metrics to reduce perceived risk for investors.

• The authors propose a four-step roadmap for restoration leaders to attract private capital: identifying and engaging the right investors, developing a commercial proposition with a robust business model, establishing an investable entity to channel funds, and tracking financial and operating performance.
• Landscape restoration projects are typically in early growth stages with uncertain cash flows and business models, making them most suitable for private investors with high risk tolerance or impact investors who prioritize a "triple bottom line" of people, planet, and profits.
• Private investors evaluate restoration ventures based on four primary dimensions: the business model (how value is created and captured), management quality (track record and ability to scale), finance (cash flow profiles and balance sheets), and deal structure (valuation and exit possibilities).
• Establishing a formal investable entity, such as a company, cooperative, or community association, is essential to reduce transaction costs and provide legal protections for investors. For example, TechnoServe established 90 coffee cooperatives in Africa to help 100,000 smallholder farmers access industrial supply chains and secure loans for processing equipment.
• To increase valuation and prove the viability of a concept, restoration projects should implement pilot projects and track specific financial metrics (such as revenue growth, profit margin, and cash burn) and operating metrics (such as hectares restored or crop yield increase).
• The document highlights diverse restoration business models, including consumer products (e.g., Guayaki's organic yerba mate in South America), timber (e.g., GreenPot Enterprises' bamboo forests), and technology (e.g., BioCarbon Engineering's seed-planting drones).

APA

Faruqi, S., & Landsberg, F. (2017). Attracting Private Investment to Landscape Restoration: A Roadmap. World Resources Institute. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Attracting_Private_Investment_to_Landscape_Restoration_-_A_Roadmap.pdf

Chicago

Faruqi, Sofia, and Florence Landsberg. Attracting Private Investment to Landscape Restoration: A Roadmap. World Resources Institute, 2017. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Attracting_Private_Investment_to_Landscape_Restoration_-_A_Roadmap.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Faruqi |first1=Sofia |last2=Landsberg |first2=Florence |title=Attracting Private Investment to Landscape Restoration: A Roadmap |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=February 2017 |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Attracting_Private_Investment_to_Landscape_Restoration_-_A_Roadmap.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{faruqi2017attracting, author = {Faruqi, Sofia and Landsberg, Florence}, title = {{Attracting Private Investment to Landscape Restoration: A Roadmap}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2017}, month = feb, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Attracting_Private_Investment_to_Landscape_Restoration_-_A_Roadmap.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }