Entries by Neel

Characteristics of Successful Sustainable Fishery Initiatives

Over the past six years, Wilderness Markets has assessed sustainable fisheries investment opportunities in more than fifteen different wild capture fisheries worldwide. Our specific objective is defining how to make conservation-based approaches a viable financial alternative to current wild capture fishing practices. We have enjoyed working with numerous international and national partners on field assessments, […]

Is Losing the Amazon Inevitable?

As the Amazon burns, and the world responds, this might be a good time to reflect on some of the key drivers of this tragedy. Three major trends have combined to create the conditions that make it almost inevitable that the forest would be burned. Global population increase & increased global middle class Tragedy of […]

Fisheries Improvements & Social Impacts

Many years ago, when I was a hotel manager at a resort in a national marine park, I was roundly castigated for employing poachers as guards and fishermen as boat operators for our visitors. The prevailing sentiment was one of enforcement to protect the national marine park – and the expulsion of the local people. […]

IPBES global report: Species extinction rate is accelerating

This recently released report makes for sobering reading for all. One of the key challenges we will all face is how to address the challenge of climate change, environmental conservation, poverty and population. Focusing exclusively on environmental impacts and ignoring the financial and social impacts is not only sustainable, but counterproductive to achieving environmental objectives. […]

Dr. Richard Leakey – Presentation on Conservation

Dr. Richard Leakey recently presented some thoughts on conservation in Cape Town at the 2017 Conservation Lab. He made some excellent comments regarding the current and future challenges of conservation in the age of climate change, population growth and prosperity that need to be incorporated into many Conservation NGO strategies and agendas (particularly in fisheries). […]

Is this what success looks like?

An ongoing discussion between people in the conservation finance community is how we define success. Reviewing the data – which we like to do (see below) – does not demonstrate much success in addressing species or biodiversity loss. Perhaps it is time for a review of what has really worked in the conservation finance. Not […]

Investing in sustainability – the role of intangibles

“Early in the twenty-first century, a quiet revolution occurred. For the first time, the major developed economies began to invest more in intangible assets, like design, branding, R&D, and software, than in tangible assets, like machinery, buildings, and computers. For all sorts of businesses, from tech firms and pharma companies to coffee shops and gyms, […]

The Finance Gap in Sustainable Wild Capture Fisheries

Over the past few years, three broad strategies have evolved to address the challenge of achieving sustainable wild capture fisheries. These consist of: Addressing governance, regulation and policy Providing preferential access to markets via certification mechanisms and Fishery Improvement Plans Aggregating mission aligned capital While each of these strategies have merits in and of themselves, […]

A “Second Notice” to Humanity

Over 15,000 scientists from around the world have issued a somber notice to humanity. As they state: “Humanity has failed to make sufficient progress in generally solving these foreseen environmental challenges, and alarmingly, most of them are getting far worse,” they write. (Our emphasis added). We encourage a close reading of the paper, if only […]