Scaling Nature Finance for Africa: Launching BIRA Nature Buyers’ Club
Together with partners in the Biodiversity Investments Researcher & Accelerator (BIRA) Coalition - CreditNature, Axum, ALU School of Wildlife Conservation and ValueNature, we will be launching Africa’s first nature Buyers’ Club in 2025, with the goals:
✅ connecting financiers with nature-positive projects to generate tangible returns for both ecosystems and investors;
✅ enabling investment-grade biodiversity metrics and ecosystem units to be reported;
✅ raising millions of dollars to support impactful biodiversity and carbon projects in Africa
The Buyers’ Club will focus on investing in Nature Investment Certificates (NICs) that are issued by CreditNature and unlock payments for positive ecosystem impacts, in collaboration with local communities to maximise benefits. These certificates finance project activities and are a commitment to ecosystem restoration and conservation, offering a structured way for corporations and investors to engage meaningfully with nature and its custodians.
Key Features of the BIRA Coalition and Buyers’ Club
Addressing Critical Nature Loss & Restoration activities: Innovative financial mechanisms to address nature loss are limited and severely underfunded. The Buyers’ Club aims to mobilise capital to support high-integrity nature conservation and restoration projects, thus contributing to global sustainability goals.
CreditNature’s innovative NICs each represent a 1-hectare investment in these projects and will be structured to finance capital and maintenance activities and yield nature credits, which represent verified improvements in the condition of the ecosystem.
Matching Projects to Buyer’s Needs: BIRA will work with buyers to identify the specific nature positive ambitions and ecosystem service outcomes that projects need to deliver. Ecosystem service credits, such as carbon or biodiversity gains, arising from these projects can be traded or reported by corporate buyers looking to evidence their environmental impacts and commitments.
Scaling Impact: By integrating proven frameworks, the Buyers’ Club will enable large-scale investments in biodiversity conservation, initially focusing on Africa. High-quality projects have already been identified, and will be screened and assessed by Xilva for quality, enabling ongoing alignment with buyer preferences for impactful and scalable solutions.
Ensuring High Standards and Integrity: Learning from the carbon market, the Buyers’ Club will emphasise transparency, credibility, and high-quality standards, minimising reputational risks for investors and ensuring that credits purchased are of the highest integrity. Projects will seek to align with the principles currently being developed by the World Economic Forum, Biodiversity Credit Alliance and the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits for nature markets.
The BIRA Coalition and the Convention of Biological Diversity (COP 16)
The BIRA Coalition, comprising ALU School of Wildlife Conservation, Axum, CreditNature, ValueNature, and XILVA, unites diverse expertise to advance biodiversity. With the sixteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 16), taking place in late October this year, the Buyers’ Club is a unique opportunity to drive investment into biodiversity and access high-quality nature investment certificates, the first in Africa.
For more information about the Buyers’ Club, check out the latest article from Carbon Pulse: “African Nature Credit Buyers’ Club to Launch with Target of ‘Millions of Dollars’.”
This is a unique opportunity for corporates, philanthropists and investors to support large-scale nature restoration. Contact us to join the nature Buyers' Club or please help to spread the message!
