Samples of Monday concurrent sessions

I sat in on an interesting concurrent session on social impact investing and biosphere reserves, led by the first President of the George Wright Society, Vernon (Tom) Gilbert. Tom introduced Shaun Paul, who is working to create a “a biocultural resilience tool, a holistic management tool transforming capital markets to enhance biodiversity and cultural diversity.” Investors love the idea and don’t need a high profit but need to show a return. A rapidly growing number of businesses and investors are ‘sympathetic’ to holistic approaches to people and planet, yet lack data to support ‘the business case.’ “ Inadequate information inhibits understanding of risks and opportunities afforded with a holistic approach to natural resource management…The need is for evidence and stories building long-term investment value.”

The main point is that better information will “unleash pent-up demand for positive social impact investing,” The presentation discussed improvements in standardizing measures of success, with projects like the Ocean Health Index and Miradi, and the US National research Council Committee on Criteria and Procedures for Evaluating Programs to Conserving Biological Diversity.

How do we get investors to think long-term and inter-generationally, the way that traditional societies have always done, to look seven generations ahead?

An afternoon session showcased examples of societies who are acting as intergenerational stewards in the Torngat Mountains of Canada; north-coastal California, and San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Hawk Rosales of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council talked about the use of conservation easements, which can be written to allow traditional land uses but restrict more impactful resource consumption. These easements have been held by non-native land trusts, successfully, but have also contributed to the advent of native-led land trusts, and a Native Land Trust Alliance, with seven member organizations to date. Given their perpetuity, conservation easements represent one of the few tools our modern society has developed that mirror the long-term stewardship of traditional societies.