Credit: James Wainscoat on Unsplash
Financially viable models for investing in nature vary widely in approach and quality. French startup Hummingbirds partners with local businesses, organizations and communities in vulnerable and/or biodiverse areas to tap carbon market revenues.
In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, the company is partnering with a local nature lodge, nature conservation organization and the national forest development company to restore degraded land and develop sustainable timber and agroforestry operations on more than 86,000 acres.
Hummingbirds has more than 20 projects in the works covering more than 1.7 million acres and impacting more than 400,000 peoples’ livelihoods in nearly a dozen countries.
The company secured €50 million ($59 million) from Swedfund, Proparco and British International Investment, partially guaranteed by the EU’s EFSD+ Carbon Sink program, which was launched in 2024 to encourage European development finance institutions to invest in forestry, marine and regenerative agriculture projects in emerging markets.
Natural capital
Private investors and companies increased their investments in nature-based projects more than 10-fold between 2020 and 2024.
A B Corp, Hummingbirds, helps corporations meet their climate goals with offsets through the voluntary carbon markets. The Côte d’Ivoire project was started last year and will issue its first credits in 2028 through the restoration of degraded savannah, development of sustainable teak and gmelina timber, and the planting of shea trees for local shea processing.
Hummingbirds is also working with local organizations to improve forest management in Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental, and to conserve forestland and prevent illegal logging and poaching in Cambodia’s Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary.
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