Fireside chat with Anja Rundquist,
InvestConservation’s Chief Commercial Officer.
- Anja Rundquist, InvestConservation’s Chief Commercial Officer
Back to main blog pageELJ: Anja, I’m delighted to have this opportunity to interview you. You have a remarkable background, with over 15 years of experience, serving in multiple countries and corporate roles for leading fortune 500 companies and prominent pioneers in sustainability innovation. Can you share the origin story of InvestConservation?
AR: InvestConservation was founded in 2022 to drive investments into conservation, going beyond philanthropy. Our Founder, John Rogers, has a background in finance, forestry investments, and is an avid naturalist that visited more than 100 protected areas across the globe. He has seen the transformative power of capital but also seen the failure of 30 years of carbon markets to halt tropical deforestation and the loss of biodiversity. This was the inspiration to found InvestConservation® a mission driven company solely dedicated to building a market that creates a value for conservation lands and for the protection of threatened species. John has since brought on a management team with a unique set of skills across biodiversity conservation, sustainability, sales marketing and blockchain technology.
ELJ: I always enjoy hearing about fellow keen naturalists; I look forward to meeting John! Could you elaborate on the mission and vision of InvestConservation?
AR: InvestConservation mission is to make conservation investable. We focus on high quality projects in biodiversity hotspots and leverage smart technology to provide transparency, traceability and efficiency with no costly middlemen. We select and manage conservation projects for corporate clients, maximise impact per dollar invested and reduce the time and resources clients need to make a tangible impact. With InvestConservation 85% of every dollar invested goes directly to conservation efforts in critical hotspots, almost twice the amount in traditional carbon projects.
Our vision is to halt tropical deforestation by creating a value for nature. Our goal is to finance the protection of over one million hectares of tropical forests by 2030.
ELJ: Ten million! Fantastic. How does InvestConservation define and measure the success of its conservation projects?
AR: Hectares protected, species protected and carbon sequestered.
ELJ: That sounds straightforward enough. But what about tradable biodiversity? In fact, it’d help if you could explain how tradable biodiversity and carbon rights work and their significance in conservation efforts?
AR: Tradable carbon rights are the most obvious path to recognising the value of nature. In theory, those forests that sequester and hold so much carbon would become valuable, and landholders in tropical countries would benefit from the development of these markets. In practice, most of the benefits of carbon markets went to western projects, western financiers and industrial projects offering the allure of an engineered solution. InvestConservation is working with new carbon registries and new more rigorous methodologies to address this obvious misallocation of resources.
Tradable biodiversity rights hold great potential for valuing nature as nature, rather than as a mere carbon repository. InvestConservation is working to support area based multi-taxa frameworks that recognize the value in the conserved biodiversity.
ELJ: What are some specific examples of how these tradable rights have been implemented successfully in your projects?
AR: Several of our clients are now funding high-quality projects with carbon credits that will be generated under new methodologies with new registries. Other clients support InvestConservation’s own methodology that eliminates another layer of bureaucracy and is well suited to a corporate nature contribution.
ELJ: Who are some of your key partners, and how do they contribute to your conservation initiatives?
AR: Reputable local conservation partners with a proven track record in species programs. For example, Fundacion Jocotoco in Ecuador or the Katala Foundation in the Philippines both have track records of saving species and critical habitats with relatively low budgets - in conservation terms they maximise impact per dollar.
Otherwise, we use monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) solutions for leveraging smart technology to independently measure outcomes and cut out costly middlemen. Furthermore, collaborations with organisations like Climate Collective, Innovate 4 Nature, Biodiversity Credit Alliance, Swiss Green Fintech Network, Nature Tech Collective bring knowledge-sharing and visibility.
ELJ: You’ve mentioned working with local conservation partners. How do you ensure that local communities are involved and benefit from InvestConservation projects?
AR: InvestConservation projects always benefit a conservation supporting landowner. Where the land is owned directly by a conservation group, there are programs to support neighbouring communities. Where a community is a landowner, they are the direct recipients of funding. Local employment in conservation has multiple impacts in poverty alleviation, skill development and building support for sustainable development in those communities.
ELJ: What role does technology play in your conservation efforts? Are there any particular innovations that have significantly enhanced your work?
AR: Leveraging smart technology plays a leading role in cutting out costly old fashioned models and also bringing independent and data-driven measures and monitoring of outcomes, providing the most-needed transparency and traceability to instil investor confidence.
We use satellites for above ground carbon measures, and use camera traps and bioacoustic for biodiversity measures. An interesting development has been the use of AI analysis of soundscapes as a scalable and cost effective way of measuring biodiversity. Dr. Martin Schaefer, CEO of Fundacion Jocotoco and Conservation Director at InvestConservation was involved in a two-year study of Ecuadorian reserves published in Nature Communications showing the efficacy of this approach. This study also got coverage in Bloomberg, among others.
ELJ: Could you share a success story from one of your conservation projects that had a significant impact on a threatened species?
AR: All of our conservation partners have effectively saved species and critical habitats. In Ecuador, Fundacion Jocotoco has brought Pale-headed Brushfinch back from the brink of extinction; has rediscovered the assumed extinct horned marsupial frog, and is now safeguarding most of the world population of Brown-headed Spider Monkey in its Canande reserve. Katala Foundation has increased the population of critically endangered Philippine Cockatoo in the areas they manage (while other populations continue to diminish).
ELJ: The Pale-headed Brushfinch: what a beautiful bird! I’m getting goosebumps listening to you discuss how they’ve been brought back from the brink of extinction. This sounds like very rewarding work. But there must be plenty of challenges along the way. What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work, and how do you overcome them?
AR: The challenge we see is that corporations focus primarily on reporting and disclosures. With unclear guidance from goal-setting and frameworks for investing in nature, many companies that want to contribute are unsure how to proceed. InvestConservation supports companies by providing high-quality projects that they can be proud to stand behind and can point to species they are saving from extinction. This is a benefit that cannot be argued with!
ELJ: Quite right! I read very recently that your company has been selected as a Top Innovator by Uplink-World Economic Forum as part of their ‘Biodiversity Challenge’.. First of all, huge congratulations as I know there were hundreds of submissions from around the globe! It demonstrates that InvestConservation is considered a top solution for halting biodiversity loss worldwide. What key lessons have you learned from your experiences with InvestConservation that you would like to share with others in the conservation field?
AR:Thank you! We’re thrilled. As someone relatively new to the conservation field compared to some of my colleagues who have decades of experience, one of the key lessons I've learned through my work with InvestConservation is the immense value of bringing together diverse skill sets to achieve conservation goals. Our team is often described as unique because we combine expertise in conservation, finance, forestry, technology, sustainability, commercial strategies, and sales. This multidisciplinary approach allows us to bridge gaps that typically exist between conservation and finance, helping to align ecological goals with corporate strategies and financial objectives.
Another crucial lesson is the importance of effectively communicating conservation science to non-experts, particularly those in corporate roles. To drive real change, it's essential to convey how conservation efforts can align with corporate strategic goals, ultimately ensuring that funds are directed toward the most impactful projects.
ELJ: The nature and biodiversity crisis require interdisciplinary thinking, there’s no doubt about that, so I am pleased to hear your reflections on bringing together diverse skill sets. How do you respond to critics of biodiversity projects and to those who are unwilling to engage until the technology is more evolved?
AR:Time is of the essence in conservation; we can't afford to wait for perfect conditions. It's vital to start working on high-integrity projects immediately, even if they're not yet fully developed. Reporting and vetting projects are resource-intensive, so we aim to partner with organisations that have established track records in species conservation. By doing so, we focus on helping firms select the right projects rather than providing them directly.
The fear of greenwashing is pervasive, making accurate and transparent reporting a priority. We advocate for a taxa or area-based approach, where measurable outcomes in biodiversity are key. The biodiversity credit markets are still in their early stages, but they hold significant potential.
Moreover, technology plays a pivotal role in advancing conservation. For example, in Ecuador Fundacion Jocotoco has utilised AI-trained machines to recognise species through camera traps and acoustic data. This scalable and cost-effective approach allows for comprehensive biodiversity monitoring, down to the species level. While the technology is still evolving, and the AI doesn't yet recognise all species, it's already proving to be more efficient than manual counting. However, we must act quickly to conserve nature, as much of it might be lost before technology can fully measure it.
A final point is the critical distinction between conservation and restoration. While consumers are often drawn to tree planting, conserving existing ecosystems is far more cost-effective— seven to ten times less expensive than restoration. It's much easier and cheaper to preserve what we already have than to rebuild what we've lost.
ELJ: Anja, it’s been a pleasure chatting with you. Before I say goodbye, let’s end with a short summary of your thoughts.
AR:The future of biodiversity conservation will be data-rich and technology-driven, but we must not wait for perfect tools to act. The technology to measure everything might not exist yet, but if we don't conserve nature now, it may not be there to measure once the technology catches up.