In conservation finance, “community engagement” has become almost reflexive. Projects mention it in their opening paragraphs, check the box in their logic models, and schedule a round of stakeholder meetings before implementation begins. Yet across the Innovative Finance for National Forests (IFNF) program, this language often masked a deeper problem: communities were being informed about decisions, not invited to shape them.
Listen to this Sliced essay on any of the streaming platforms below. Written by: Sean Penrith This is the second in a five-part Innovative Finance for National Forests (IFNF) Insights Brief Series produced by Gordian Knot Strategies, the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, and the U.S. Forest Service. Each brief distills a core lesson…
Across the five cohorts of the Innovative Finance for National Forests (IFNF) program, we have reviewed dozens of proposals aiming to mobilize private capital for forest and watershed health. We have seen brilliant engineering, passionate teams, and cutting-edge technology. Yet, one pattern consistently separates the projects that secure funding from those that stall: the clarity of the problem.
Written by: Gordian Knot Strategies Across the United States, forests and watershed systems quietly sustain the foundations of daily life, anchoring water security, recreation economies, disaster risk reduction, carbon storage, and regional resilience. Historically, these public benefits have been financed through appropriations, philanthropy, and emergency response. As conditions on the ground intensify, it has become…
Michael Saylor of Strategy Inc (formerly Micro Strategy) is many things: a visionary, a provocateur, and, depending on whom you ask, either a reckless gambler or a financial genius. But regardless of where one stands on his bold bet, there’s no denying this: Saylor has fundamentally changed how the market thinks about corporate balance sheets, debt instruments, and the intersection of capital markets with unconventional assets.
