FRONTIER ECOSYSTEM FINANCE
Degraded land can't attract capital. Lasting ecosystems can.
We build the financial infrastructure that lets investors fund ecological transitions without buying the land. The work lowers fire risk, revives water flows, and puts people to work. Investors are paid from what the land produces and what it stops costing: specific benefits include biochar, energy, filtration media, carbon, grazing, and contracted reductions in insurance premiums and municipal treatment costs. Any owner. Any jurisdiction. Inclusive of the communities who live on the land.
An ecological death spiral.
New Mexico’s landscapes co-evolved with regular, low-intensity fire and herbivory. Over the past century, traditional land stewardship practices, including prescribed and cultural burning and holistic grazing, have declined, contributing to a downward spiral of ecological degradation. Our challenge is to reverse this trajectory, restoring the processes that allow landscapes to cross ecological thresholds toward recovery, resilience, and abundance rather than continued decline.
5M+ acres
burned across New Mexico in the last two decades, mountain range after mountain range
341,000 acres
the Hermits Peak fire alone, the state’s largest, almost 10 times the Palisades and Eaton fires that cost Los Angeles $250B
$5.4B
in federal payouts after the fires, not for what comes next
$1B+
in water-compact liability, just settled between New Mexico and Texas
We are already paying for landscape degradation, and financial markets have been pricing that risk into their decisions for years. Two decades of bond data show that as a region’s landscapes deteriorate, its cost of borrowing rises. In affected U.S. counties, bond yields average roughly 11 basis points higher, while sovereign debt spreads increase by 25 to 75 basis points, with borrowers in the most degraded areas facing premiums up to three times greater. In effect, regions are already paying a penalty for ecological decline through higher costs of capital, both debt and equity, as the markets price-in the impacts of neglect. These accumulating costs can far exceed what it would take to restore the land and put the region on a more sustainable economic and ecological footing.
See the research and the math →30 years. Thousands of square miles.
The good news is that landscape and regional renewal are not new. They have been successfully demonstrated and are already underway in many parts of the world. Members of our team have spent decades designing, implementing, and monitoring community-led ecological restoration and stewardship initiatives spanning millions of acres. Well-documented examples include the Malpai Borderlands in the American Southwest, Montana’s Blackfoot Challenge, and fisheries recovery efforts along the coast of Maine, as well as numerous other initiatives around the globe. These experiences demonstrate that landscape-scale renewal is not simply an aspiration, but a proven approach that can deliver lasting ecological, economic, and community benefits.
Malpai Borderlands
Southern New Mexico1,000,000 acres · 2 countries · 4 states · 8 counties · 30+ years (ongoing)
One of the most intensely studied landscape-scale ecological projects in a similar biome and ecological context to the current NM pilot. The project's Achilles heel, reliance on federal and foundation funding that collapsed after the 2008 financial crisis, is exactly what the Transition Facility architecture solves. The financial infrastructure didn't exist. Now it does.
Warner Glenn and Kelly Glenn, ranchers; Richard Knight, Colorado State University. Curtin, C.G. (2015), peer-reviewed book documenting the project
Blackfoot Challenge
Western Montana2,200,000 acres · Multi-watershed collaborative · Multi-decade
A world-renowned trout fishery and watershed where high land values reflect the economic benefits of ecological integrity at the landscape scale. This example also illustrates the importance of community engagement and careful documentation in sustaining the cultural and ecological functions that underpin the region’s natural and economic assets.
Charles Curtin, comparative design and monitoring. Curtin, C.G., peer-reviewed book comparing Malpai Borderlands and Blackfoot Challenge
Downeast Initiative
Gulf of Maine, Downeast Maine7,500 square miles · Nearshore groundfish and lobster fisheries · Since 2001 (ongoing)
The Downeast Initiative has worked since 2001 to revive groundfish and lobster fisheries across a 7,500 square mile coastal region. Much like the landscapes of the West, nearshore fisheries have basins, valleys, and mountains, the highest of which surface as islands. The same patterns of resource use, abundance, and collaborative stewardship hold, which shows these processes are ubiquitous across wet and dry ecosystems.
Charles Curtin, co-founder and science advisor, with Jim Wilson of the University of Maine, fisheries conservationists Robin Alden and Ted Ames, and Reverend Ted HoskinsThe work we propose is supported by over 1,000 pages of documentation including numerous articles, and several books and reports including The Science of Open Spaces (2015), Complex Ecology (2018), and Place-Based Solutions (2026).
Macroeconomic assessment, ecosystem design, field ops, and underwriting.
Practitioners know how to undertake sustainable, community-based landscape renewal. What has been missing is a reliable way to finance and sustain the work over time. We propose a durable approach to restoring landscapes and watersheds that draws on evolutionary and ecological theory to integrate social, ecological, operational and financial processes into an adaptive system. As landscapes recover, watersheds improve, and communities are revitalized, the resulting growth in ecosystem services and cultural benefits creates new economic value.
A core tenet is to facilitate and enable every party—public and private, communities who have lived on the land for centuries, local operators, landowners, municipalities, the state and federal forestry departments—to transition from the status quo to an ecological-adaptive ecosystem. By linking multilateral governance, contracting and financing to improvements in ecological function, we can establish a reinforcing cycle in which recovery generates additional investment, allowing restoration and community renewal to expand and sustain themselves over time.
ECOSYSTEM DESIGN
Land, people, and capital, designed as one.
We begin by understanding the landscape as it is today: its watersheds and groundwater, soils, vegetation, wildlife, and the communities that depend on them. From there, we develop an integrated approach that brings together three interdependent elements: the ecological processes that sustain the land, the communities and governance structures responsible for its stewardship, and the financing needed to support renewal over time. Ecological interventions, such as restoring natural drainage patterns, slowing runoff, increasing groundwater infiltration, and reversing erosion, are designed alongside the social and financial systems needed to sustain them. We then model alternative scenarios, sequencing restoration activities over years and evaluating how each affects ecological recovery, land productivity, community benefits, and the financial performance of participating landowners and operators. This allows everyone involved to understand the tradeoffs, adapt investments as conditions change, and build a shared pathway toward long-term landscape and community renewal.
ECOLOGY
Land health, fauna and flora.
In collaboration with our local partner, Regional Regeneration, we develop the social and ecological framework for renewing landscapes and communities. Working with our measurement partner, Merge Impact, we track ecological recovery through field measurements, biological indicators, and remote sensing. These include soil moisture and water-holding capacity, soil organic matter, nutrient cycling, nematodes and microbial communities, and acoustic monitoring of returning wildlife. Satellite imagery and water gauges across watersheds and acequia networks provide additional measures of changing landscape conditions. Combined with locally grounded governance and community engagement, these measurements allow us to document ecological recovery, assess the effectiveness of restoration practices, and adapt management and investment as conditions change. The result is a continuous learning process in which ecological monitoring, community stewardship, and financial decisions reinforce one another, allowing restoration efforts to evolve as the land recovers.
OPERATIONS AND LOGISTICS
Every job tracked, from crew to buyer.
From forest thinning and selective logging to biomass processing, biochar production, holistic grazing, and watershed restoration, we coordinate the full range of activities needed to renew working landscapes and more functional watersheds. This includes the crews undertaking forest treatments, the transport and processing of woody biomass, the production and application of biochar, and the restoration of soils, streams, and grazing lands. Each activity is planned, costed, scheduled, and tracked through completion, with clear links between operators, landowners, processors, and buyers. By coordinating these activities across the landscape, we can reduce costs, make better use of local resources, create reliable markets for restoration products, and ensure that economic returns support continued ecological recovery.
UNDERWRITING
Made for the people who price the risk.
We bring together ecological, operational, and financial information in a shared system that allows investors, insurers, banks, and buyers of ecosystem services to understand how restoration is progressing and where their money is going. This provides the evidence needed to assess risks, structure financing and insurance, and release funds as work is completed and ecological improvements are verified. Initial investments are based on established sources of revenue and proven restoration practices, while more innovative approaches are introduced gradually as their performance is demonstrated. Early projects may carry higher financing costs because of uncertainty, but as results are documented and risks decline, the cost of capital can fall. Over time, each successful project builds the evidence and confidence needed to make the next one easier and less expensive to finance, creating a reinforcing cycle of ecological recovery and regional investment.
LandStack brings ecological planning, restoration operations, monitoring, and financing together in a single system. This allows landowners, operators, investors, and insurers to work from the same information, track progress, assess risks, and make decisions based on documented conditions and results on the ground.
See LandStackFire, Water, Jobs.
Turning wildfire liability into productive infrastructure.
We are beginning with five pilot project sites distributed across a million-acre focal area in New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, a region whose watersheds feed the Canadian River, Rio Grande, and Pecos River basins. Together, these sites provide an opportunity to demonstrate how forest restoration, watershed recovery, managed grazing, and new local industries can work together to renew landscapes and communities at a meaningful scale.
For example, one of the projects centers on approximately 35,000 acres of private ranchland and state trust land near Ocate, where we are developing an integrated approach to reducing wildfire risk, restoring watershed function, improving grazing lands, and creating economic value from forest materials that currently have little or no market. Small-scale biochar production facilities can convert excess woody biomass and fire-damaged timber into biochar, combustible gas, and usable energy, while supporting local forestry businesses and creating new opportunities for landowners and ranchers.
This work is taking shape in a region still recovering from a number of large wildfires, where billions of dollars have been committed to disaster compensation, but relatively little sustained financing is available to address the landscape conditions that contribute to catastrophic fires. Our goal is to establish a financing model that supports restoration over decades rather than through a succession of short-term grants. We are developing new forms of Industrial Revenue Bonds that support natural infrastructure, alongside other public and private investments, to finance the infrastructure and restoration activities needed to build a lasting regional economy around healthy forests, productive grazing lands, and secure watersheds.
Where we go next.
Our work is guided by a set of core principles: We do not seek ownership, control, or financial claims against the land, nor do we displace the people and communities who have stewarded it for generations. We respect local knowledge, cultural traditions, property rights, and the authority of communities to determine their own futures. Our role is to bring together the ecological expertise, governance, and financing needed to support their efforts, not to impose outside priorities. Above all, we believe that financial arrangements must serve the long-term health of the land and its people, rather than reshaping landscapes and communities to fit the demands of investors. The regions that follow are systems we are exploring and investing in next, and we are seeking collaborative partners to help build out these projects.
Ogallala Aquifer
Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas
Across the central Plains groundwater is being withdrawn faster than it can be replenished, while invasive vegetation places additional pressure on limited water supplies. Removing invasive growth, restoring native vegetation, and improving watershed function can help conserve water while generating woody biomass for productive use. This approach offers a model for county-level restoration that could be adapted and expanded across the eight states overlying the Ogallala Aquifer.
Iberia
Huelva, Algarve, Alentejo
Across the Mediterranean, fragmented landownership, changing rural economies, and increasing drought and wildfire risk have contributed to widespread landscape degradation. By bringing landowners and communities together, we can restore watersheds, reduce wildfire risk, and attract investment at a scale individual properties cannot attract. Our proposed first European project will demonstrate how coordinated restoration can strengthen local economies while preserving landownership, cultural traditions, and community control.
Brazil
National transition credit
Brazil has significant opportunities to attract investment through national transition credits, but limited monitoring and accountability can leave a gap between financial commitments and meaningful change on the ground. Our approach links this capital directly to locally led restoration, with funding tied to documented fieldwork and verified ecological outcomes. This ensures that investment supports lasting landscape recovery and delivers measurable benefits to local communities.
Taiwan-France
Rural France, demand from Taiwan
Across rural France, farmers face increasing drought, rising costs, and uncertainty over government subsidies, threatening the viability of traditional agriculture. By connecting landscape restoration and sustainable agricultural production with growing demand in Taiwan, we aim to create new sources of income that strengthen rural communities, improve ecological resilience, and reduce dependence on government support.
We work with public and private partners to bring together the financing, local governance, and practical operations needed to restore landscapes, strengthen communities, and sustain ecological and economic renewal at a regional scale.
The work begins by listening to and engaging with communities, then moves into designing the landscape interventions and ecological outcomes we seek to achieve. From there, we assemble the transitional capital needed to finance the initial work, while building the capacity to sustain and expand it. Throughout, the process remains adaptive, with each phase informing the next through a continuing cycle of testing assumptions, action, response, learning, and adjustment.
Develop
12-24 months
The work begins with an assessment of the landscape followed by the design of the changes in forest stand structure, watershed restorations, and grazing and appropriate markets needed to improve ecological function. At the same time, we establish the governing organization, define the roles of communities and partners, and put the necessary agreements in place. We then assemble the financing needed to begin the work, including industrial revenue bonds, first-loss capital, and insurance guarantees. Baseline ecological assessments and monitoring provide the means to measure change and guide future decisions. Permitting and procurement proceed in parallel, including offsite fabrication of modular equipment. Finally, agreements with buyers establish markets for the products and services generated through restoration, with capital released as work progresses and results are verified.
Transition
~1 year
With the initial planning, design, and agreements in place, capital is deployed through industrial revenue bonds, backed by an active insurance guarantee and supplemented by working capital from the first revenues. Monitoring and verification systems provide an auditable record of progress, with initial revenues expected within three to six months. By month twelve, a complete package documenting financial performance, ecological outcomes, and operational progress is prepared for review by bond advisors.
Stabilise
~2 years
Revenue Ramp, contracted output streams at volume; the land recovering and the local economy self-supporting
First-Loss Exits, transition capital absorbed or recycled; IRB reprices
Institutional Entry Gate, commercial capital enters at stabilisation
Scale
Ongoing
Self-Sustaining, no subsidy; the region adapts and revises the plan as it learns
Institutional Governance, pension/sovereign capital holds for long-duration yield
Methodology Transfer, template deals replicate to new regions
Develop
12-24 months
The work begins with an assessment of the landscape followed by the design of the changes in forest stand structure, watershed restorations, and grazing and appropriate markets needed to improve ecological function. At the same time, we establish the governing organization, define the roles of communities and partners, and put the necessary agreements in place. We then assemble the financing needed to begin the work, including industrial revenue bonds, first-loss capital, and insurance guarantees. Baseline ecological assessments and monitoring provide the means to measure change and guide future decisions. Permitting and procurement proceed in parallel, including offsite fabrication of modular equipment. Finally, agreements with buyers establish markets for the products and services generated through restoration, with capital released as work progresses and results are verified.
Transition
~1 year
With the initial planning, design, and agreements in place, capital is deployed through industrial revenue bonds, backed by an active insurance guarantee and supplemented by working capital from the first revenues. Monitoring and verification systems provide an auditable record of progress, with initial revenues expected within three to six months. By month twelve, a complete package documenting financial performance, ecological outcomes, and operational progress is prepared for review by bond advisors.
Stabilise
~2 years
Revenue Ramp, contracted output streams at volume; the land recovering and the local economy self-supporting
First-Loss Exits, transition capital absorbed or recycled; IRB reprices
Institutional Entry Gate, commercial capital enters at stabilisation
Scale
Ongoing
Self-Sustaining, no subsidy; the region adapts and revises the plan as it learns
Institutional Governance, pension/sovereign capital holds for long-duration yield
Methodology Transfer, template deals replicate to new regions
Degraded → Responding → Transitioning → Sovereign
Side by side with institutions.
Sovereign Land works with national laboratories, universities, regulatory agencies, government institutions, conservation and rural development organizations, and specialists in landscape finance and management. Our approach is to build on the knowledge, experience, and capacity of existing institutions rather than create new structures that duplicate or replace them. Insurers are an important part of this partnership, not simply as providers of financial protection, but as participants with a direct interest in the success of restoration. As landscapes recover, wildfire and other ecological risks decline, reducing potential losses and creating a shared incentive to sustain the work over time. For example, we are currently collaborating with Los Alamos National Laboratory on wildfire spread modeling to better understand how landscape restoration can reduce risk.
Research & Science
Our team has worked with federal partners including Sandia National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Landscape ecology and systems design methodology via Dr. Charles Curtin, landscape ecologist, chairs the Cultural-Ecological Integrity workstream of the New Mexico Biomass Working Group, with direct advisory pathway to the governor's office.
Landscape Finance & Advocacy
Aligned with Commonland's 4 Returns framework, financial, natural, social, inspirational capital.
Landscape-scale structuring informed by the largest transition finance practitioners in Europe.
Insurance companies engaged as dual-role participants, bond guarantors whose own insured assets benefit directly from integrity outcomes. Watershed protection and fire risk reduction reduce their claims exposure, keeping their incentives aligned with the project across the full investment horizon.
Conservation & Land Management
State land offices, tribal land managers, county governments, and federal land managers as operating partners.
Farmer, rancher, and forester cooperatives, and timber companies, as engagement pipeline.
We invite conservation organizations, land trusts, and stewardship bodies to engage as structuring partners.
Field work in New Mexico is carried out with Merge Impact, a field partner on the ground.
* The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, January 2026 special issue on climate risks and insurance (8 papers).Partner with us.
We bring together research institutions, public and private land managers, local and state governments, conservation organizations, and landscape finance specialists. Our goal is to build an open, collaborative network that draws on existing expertise and institutions, while creating new opportunities to work together at the scale needed for lasting change.
High yield for generations.
Restored landscapes generate lasting returns for the investors who finance the work, the companies that carry it out, and the communities that steward the land. Our role is not to acquire land, but to help restore its productivity and create benefits that endure for generations.
Full investor detailsRestoring landscapes at the scale of entire regions.
We work with governments and public agencies, large landowners, foundations, and NGOs to restore landscapes and the communities that depend on them. Our partnerships are organized at the scale of entire watersheds and regions, bringing together the public institutions, landowners, communities, and investors whose futures depend on the long-term health of the land. If your organization is responsible for, or invested in, a landscape at this scale, we would welcome a conversation about how we might work together.
Contact us