Hosted on November 26 as part of Canada Climate Week Xchange, Unlocking Canada’s Nature Advantage: The Economic Power of Nature in Forestry, Agriculture and Indigenous-Led Business exemplified Canada’s Nature Advantage as a space for leaders in forestry, agriculture, finance, Indigenous business and government to work together on solutions that benefit nature and people.
Building on case studies, public opinion polling, economic research and policy analysis, a series of roundtable discussions explored the steps we can take to elevate Canada’s managed forests, farmlands and Indigenous territories – and the people who steward them – as the foundations of a globally competitive, made-in-Canada nature-positive economy.
Key Takeaways
- Unresolved jurisdiction hinders opportunity. Affirming Indigenous rights to natural assets, including carbon and other ecosystem benefits, can enable investment while advancing reconciliation.
- Economic opportunity drives change. Market actors can be influential champions for nature-positive economic policy.
- Canada urgently needs a dedicated nature finance structurer and aggregator to convert fragmented projects into investment-grade opportunities that meet materiality requirements.
- A collaborative “sandbox” for prototyping financial structures, standardizing metrics and proving bankability can de-risk nature-positive investments and accelerate innovation across the sector.
- Shifting from a cost-avoidance mindset to a value-generation approach positions nature-positive investments as drivers of competitive risk-adjusted returns, portfolio resilience, and new revenue streams—essential for attracting mainstream institutional capital.
What We Heard
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Summary Report
Unlocking Canada’s Nature Advantage: The Economic Power of Nature in Agriculture, Forestry, and Indigenous-Led Business
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