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🌆 If you’re reading this issue of our newsletter, then there’s a pretty good chance that you’re an urban dweller of a large Southeast Asian metropolis—a so-called concrete jungle. Alicia Keys says that concrete jungles are “where dreams are made of” (no, it’s not “wet dream tomato”), and from an economic perspective—with over 80% of GDP generated by cities—she’d be right. However, it’s easy to lose touch with the true non-concrete jungles where our ancestors’ dreams were made of if we’re only surrounded by paved roads and skyscrapers while consuming highly-processed food everyday.

🤑 Modern urban life has made us disconnected from nature, which makes us neglect its true value; but did you know that over half of global GDP (~$58T) is either moderately or heavily dependent on nature?! (Climate Action, 2023)

⛰️ If it’s bean awhile since you’ve gone mountain hiking, on a camping trip, or even walking in your nearby park then take this as a sign to be in the great outdoors! Nothing beets being in nature, that’s why the Japanese literally have a term, Shinrin-yoku that literally means “forest bathing” 🛀🏻🌲 as a means to reduce anxiety.

🌽 OK that’s enough corn-y puns (for now)… In this issue, we partner up with Terratai to reconnect with our natural, agricultural roots.

🤔 What’s the deal with Nature-based Solutions?

💖 We cannot have healthy, prosperous societies if we don’t protect the natural systems on which they depend. Nature and the ecosystem services that it provides, such as creating clean water, pollinating and irrigating our fields, protecting our cities and towns from floods or droughts, providing materials for shelter, medicine and—perhaps most of all—our food, underpins every one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Stockholm Resilience, 2017).

💚 Actions that are designed to protect, sustainably manage, and/or restore ecosystems to address climate change and biodiversity loss are now widely known as Nature-based Solutions (NbS). But there remains a lot of misunderstanding about what NbS are, and how they work.

❗NbS are a critical component in addressing the threat of climate change from both a mitigation as well as an adaptation perspective. From a mitigation perspective—as we described in previous issues with regards to the potential of peatlands, mangroves, etc.—our natural assets are a huge carbon sink.

🛡️ Beyond this, NbS also help make our communities more resilient to the negative impacts of climate change.

📺 The Nature Conservancy has a great short video explaining the linkages between climate change and NbS:

🔗 The most effective NbS also address other linked issues such as the economic inequalities that underpin many of the drivers of ecosystem loss in the first place. For instance by creating new forms of income for rural farmers and fishers, or by providing alternatives to costly and ultimately damaging infrastructure and development projects, NbS can solve for both environmental and economic issues simultaneously.

🧑🏻‍🌾 Food systems x Nature-based Solutions = climate solution?

🍽️ As we’ve already explored in the last 6 issues as part of our food & agriculture series, the way we produce what we eat is a critical component to solving the climate change crisis.

🥗 To put it simply, our food connects us all to nature. Our food systems—how we grow, harvest, process and trade what we eat—are inextricably dependent on nature. However, ironically, as we had mentioned in our last issue on land use, unsustainable agricultural practices are also the single largest driver of nature & biodiversity loss as well as a major driver of global emissions. Thus, it is through food systems that we can also have the greatest impact on restoring and protecting our most precious natural ecosystems.

🌶️ It’s common knowledge that Southeast Asia is blessed with a variety of natural resources, and it’s this very reason that most of the region was colonized to begin with—for our spices (not to be confused with the spice from Dune lore!) Cultivating these natural resources has often come at the expense of the environment. Examples of this include the deforestation and land degradation—particularly of peatlands—that are associated with massive monoculture plantations for palm oil & rubber.

❤️‍🩹 However, this doesn’t have to be the case! We can grow our food in a way that is also beneficial for the planet in terms of both our climate as well as biodiversity.

Examples from Southeast Asia

🍀 Fortunately, there are promising signs of solutions from across Southeast Asia, and we’re even featuring an interview with one such pioneering sustainable food system pioneer—Helianti Hilman of Javara—later on, but here are 3 cases to highlight beforehand…

Mangroves

🌳 Mangroves offer a variety of beneficial ecosystem services, such as preventing the inundation of farmland caused by sea level rise and buffering the effects of climate-related storm surges. They also sequester up to 5 times more carbon than terrestrial forests (UNEP, 2023).

🦐 On our aquaculture issue with Delos we talked about how integrating shrimp farming with mangroves can offer a sustainable source of income in areas that have limited alternative economic options, while nurturing and replenishing biodiversity (Blue Natural Capital, 2018).

Seaweed

🌿 Seaweed is a true triple bottom line NbS product…

1. People: they help provide significant livelihoods for millions, particularly women & indigineous communities (World Bank, 2015)

2. Planet: they sequester large amounts of carbon—with an order of magnitude similar to mangroves (Environmental Defense Fund, 2022)—while removing excessive amounts of nitrogen & phosphorus in the water to promote a healthier coastal ecosystem (University of Indonesia, 2023) and also providing 50% of the photosynthesis on Earth (Seaweed Manifesto, 2023).

3. Profit: there are a variety of downstream products industries worth billions of dollars and growing rapidly (World Bank, 2023)

On our seaweed issue, we talked about how startups like BANYU and Biopac are leveraging this crop for just that.

Agroforestry

🌲 As briefly mentioned on our land use issue last week, agroforestry is a solution to securing forest protection and maintaining their carbon sequestering properties while supporting the provision of clean water for local farms and maintaining pollination services from non-timber crops such as coffee, chocolate, and honey (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, 2018).

🌡️ Evidence from Vietnam shows that promoting such agroforestry techniques can help vulnerable smallholder farmers become more resilient to the negative impacts of climate change on cultivating crops like rice (Climatic Change, 2012) and paves the pathway for higher value crops like coffee while simultaneously making them more resistant to extreme weather (UNDP, 2020)

🏆 Other brands that are championing such sustainable agroforestry practices in their production include 🥥 Aluan and ☕ Java Kirana, which both work closely with smallholder farmers to cultivate coconuts & coffee, respectively, in Indonesia.

🍾 What’s the bottleneck to scaling this?

💸 Companies and organisations that are working on NbS, especially those that directly support small farmers and fishers at the frontier of our most important ecosystems, are severely underfunded globally. Estimates suggest that the current funding gap for conservation and ecosystem restoration is as high as $824 billion per year (TNC, 2020), and this gap continues to widen year on year. Early stage companies focusing on food systems that can deliver positive outcomes for nature and biodiversity are particularly underfunded.

🕳️ The implications of this financing gap for climate change, biodiversity, the proper functioning of our economies, and the health and welfare of human societies are dire. This gap cannot be closed by philanthropic and donor financing alone. Engaging significantly larger and more efficient flows of private capital, and the capital markets where these financial resources are managed, represents the only viable solution opportunity for bridging this divide (Paulson Institute, 2021).

We’ll be covering this financing gap topic in a bit more detail in our issue next week!

📚 Want to learn more about this topic?

1. “Nature-based Solutions” from IUCN

2. “Nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation: challenges and opportunities for the ASEAN region” from UK’s FCDO

3. “How Nature-Based Solutions Can Help Fight Climate Change” from ADB

4. “Where are the best opportunities for nature-based solutions in Southeast Asia?” from Eco-Business

📢 Shout-out to Terratai!

🌏 Terratai is Asia's first venture builder for nature. They focus on early stage startups that are delivering nature-based solutions (NbS), which protect and restore nature as a central tenet of their business model.

🌿 Bridging the gap between early stage NbS ventures and institutional capital, Terratai offers blended finance, tailored solutions and long-term engagement to support and scale impactful initiatives that address the systemic challenges in our food systems that drive nature and biodiversity loss. To find out more and get connected, check out their website!

🗞️ Recent News

🎙️ Interview with Helianti of Javara

💡 Why were you initially inspired to work on food systems to begin with?

👨🏼‍🌾 Commencing with providing pro bono legal advice to farmers, I was introduced by indigenous farmers to the richness of Indonesia’s food biodiversity. This diversity not only serves as a foundation for crafting unique and competitive products but also addresses critical issues such as stunting, malnutrition, and food security.

⛓️ As we delved into the intricacies of the supply chain, we recognized the urgent need for transformative action within the food system. Our approach is market-driven, leveraging market participation to establish an ecosystem that fosters systemic changes benefiting farmers' livelihoods, preserving our natural resources, and offering improved, healthier food choices for consumers.

🛠️ How exactly is Javara taking action against unsustainable food production?

💚 Our mission lies at the heart of our existence, where we sustain forgotten food biodiversity and indigenous wisdom and culture, all while delivering nutritious, high-quality food to consumers. Our focus is on organic and naturally produced food, boasting over 150 products certified under both US and EU standards. We continuously explore and adopt production methods that are both climate and ecologically friendly, emphasizing the promotion of local food biodiversity and decentralized food solutions.

🏫 To further our commitment, we've established schools of rural food artisans; Sekolah Seniman Pangan formerly known as Javara Academy. These institutions nurture rural enterprises, with a special focus on empowering women, youth, and indigenous communities. Our aim is to inspire action in creating rural enterprises that leverage endemic food biodiversity and indigenous wisdom, resulting in products and services that not only mitigate climate impact but also bolster the local economy.

😲 ⁠What is a misconception or surprising fact about nature-based solutions within our food systems?

💭 It is widely perceived as unrealistic, unattainable, and irrelevant for the general public.

🎬 How can readers support Javara?

🤝 It takes a village to create systematic change, meaning collaborative action from all ecosystem players is needed. This includes consumers being mindful that their food choices affect the supply chain and nature; investors understanding that businesses fostering a better food system require blended and patient (long-term) financing; inventors and innovators addressing inclusive innovations that improve the lives of everyone within the supply chain, especially farmers and food producers; policymakers creating policies that do not hinder progress for the betterment of the food system; the media giving significant exposure to the relevance of food system change; producers understanding their strengths and roles in applying nature-positive food production practices; and the education system embracing mindful food education starting from an early stage.

🦸🏻 What do you do when you’re not saving the world?

☺️Enjoying quality time cuddling with my family👨‍👩‍👧‍👦, exploring new destinations through travel✈️, cooking delicious meals🥘, and nurturing plants🌱 in my food garden🫛.

⏭️ Next week, we’ll be closing out our food & agriculture series while transitioning over to our climate finance series by covering agriculture finance.

❓ Did you enjoy this week’s issue? If yes, please do forward to your friends who would enjoy the read as well. Also, feel free to let us know what you thought by giving us feedback at [email protected].

🌊 SEA you next week!

Karina & Massimiliano