The QBE Foundation has awarded a CAD 100,000 grant to Blue Forest, a US-based non-profit organization which aims to mitigate catastrophic wildfires and other natural resource management challenges through innovative financing solutions, and is looking to expand efforts into Canada.
Blue Forest raises funds from investors to finance landscape-scale restoration, with the aim to help reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires and subsequent flooding, improve water quality and public health outcomes, and reduce risk to infrastructure from natural disasters that can be addressed through coordinated ecological restoration work. Since 2018, it has launched several Forest Resilience Bonds (FRBs) and a Watershed Resilience Bond in the United States, and it now aims to adapt its conservation finance approach to Canada.
An FRB connects funding sources to planned restoration projects, deploying private capital to fund ecological restoration quickly and at scale. Beneficiaries (water and electric utilities, private companies, and other entities that benefit financially from improved ecosystem resilience) and land managers pay back the costs of restoration over time, easing cash flow constraints that can hinder restoration projects from moving forward or operating at the scale necessary to achieve management outcomes.
Blue Forest plans to work with civil society groups, impact investors, and First Nations/Indigenous communities to explore how new financing models, such as the FRB, could help address wildfire risk in Canada.
“Wildfires are one of the few climate risks that can be mitigated. The funds invested in restoration can help avoid future losses,” said Emma Higgins, EO QBE Foundation chair.
“At QBE our purpose is to help enable a more resilient future, for our customers, people and communities in which we operate. Blue Forest investments have helped protect thousands of acres in the US and we are very excited to support Blue Forrest explore its expansion into Canada.”
Morrison Mast, Senior Manager for International Programs at Blue Forest, added:
“Flooding and wildfire are the top two drivers of insured losses to Canadian residents and businesses, and can be risk-mitigated through active restoration efforts and financial approaches that place a value on the ecosystem services that floodplains and forests provide. Blue Forest is excited to apply lessons from our work in the US to other geographies that could also benefit from an ecosystem services valuation approach. We are collaborating with Canadian civil society groups, First Nations and Indigenous communities, and universities to explore what’s possible to provide a strong foundation for conservation finance approaches to help solve some of Canada’s biggest challenges.”
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