{"id":133068,"date":"2025-10-03T17:30:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/?p=133068"},"modified":"2025-12-18T14:00:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T14:00:29","slug":"the-nurture-nature-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/the-nurture-nature-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"The nurture nature argument"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samantha Power<\/strong> directs the think-and-do tank, the BioFi Project, which seeks to reimagine how capital flows can support place-based biocultural regeneration. The Min<\/em>t spoke with Power about her critique of the current financial system and the vision she is helping to bring to life.<\/p>\n

Samantha Power trained as a conventional neoclassical economist, beginning her career in the corridors of traditional political power \u2014 as an intern at the US Treasury \u2013\u00a0 then working at the World Bank and contributing to UN-led initiatives. But after years of trying to change the system from within, her trajectory took a radical turn, and she now identifies as a \u201cregenerative economist\u201d building new systems that make the old ones obsolete.<\/p>\n

When Power recalls her early days in economics, she frames them as both formative and disillusioning. Graduate school coincided with the signing of the Paris Agreement, and she immersed herself in questions of climate finance, asking, \u201cHow could global capital be redirected away from fossil fuels and deforestation toward renewable energy, Indigenous forest stewardship, and other life-affirming investments?“.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

If your pension fund invests in the destruction of biodiversity, there may not be a functioning economy to pay out to your beneficiaries decades from now.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That line of inquiry carried her to the World Bank, where she joined the Finance Global Practice. Her mandate was to advise some of the world\u2019s largest institutional investors \u2014 pension funds and sovereign wealth funds \u2014 on how to future-proof their portfolios given the unfolding ecological crisis and broader polycrisis. The argument, she explains, was simple: \u201cIf your pension fund invests in the destruction of biodiversity, there may not be a functioning economy to pay out to your beneficiaries decades from now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2020, she co-authored the World Bank\u2019s first report on mobilising private finance for nature <\/a>\u2014 a 100-page document that emerged in the depths of the pandemic. Yet even as she was shaping these conversations at the highest levels, she saw limitations. The money tended to flow toward large-scale conservation projects owned by corporations in the Global North, not grassroots communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the wake-up call,\u201d she says. \u201cWe needed a system that could channel resources into the hands of people already doing the work of regeneration \u2014 often indigenous communities and grassroots groups who had been at it for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond risk and return<\/span><\/p>\n

Convincing financial institutions to invest in nature regeneration required a new language. In the World Bank years, Power and her colleagues leaned heavily on the concept of risk. Destroy the biosphere, and the economy collapses \u2014 no matter how diversified your portfolio. But Power\u2019s vision goes further. She argues that life itself is regenerative, and therefore can generate a spectrum of returns: ecological, social, and cultural, not just financial.<\/p>\n

Investment, she writes, begins with inspiration \u2014 the spark that draws people into caring for their bioregion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Her book, co-authored with Leon Seefeld, BFFs: Reimagining Finance to Regenerate Our Planet<\/em><\/a>, lays out how a new layer of financial intermediaries – Bioregional Financing Facilities (BFFs\u00a0) – can become the connective tissue between increasingly centralised financial resources and the mycelial network of regeneration.<\/p>\n

BFFs make investments that generate four types of returns. First beginning with inspiration \u2014 the spark that draws people into caring for their bioregion. This leads to ecological benefits, including cleaner water, healthier soil, and restored habitats. From there, social dividends emerge \u2014 stronger communities, greater resilience in times of crisis. Only at the end of this chain do economic and financial gains emerge, often through revenue created by regenerative enterprises. All of these returns can be connected to whole systems regeneration with the right investment structure and portfolio of projects and organisations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a new theory of value,\u201d she insists. \u201cWealth is not just money. And the window in which money is worth something is closing fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast<\/h5>\n

Power resists the temptation to flood bioregional projects with capital too quickly. Instead, she advocates for \u201cslow capital\u201d\u2014patient, often philanthropic funding that allows communities to organise and prepare strategically sequenced portfolios of projects that take in larger amounts of capital over time.<\/p>\n

Currently, much of the funding for the existing BFFs – often Bioregional Trusts or Bioregional Funds – comes from foundations, family offices, and multilateral grant organisations. Over time, these catalytic funds can give rise to Bioregional Venture Studios that incubate regenerative enterprises that attract impact investors. But Power is clear: traditional institutions bound by strict fiduciary duty are not her immediate target for funding bioregional regeneration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is not to replicate the old paradigm with greener labels,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s to build a new layer in the global financial system\u2014one that serves life rather than extracts from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regeneration in practice<\/h5>\n

What does this look like on the ground? Power offers vivid examples.<\/p>\n

The historic removal of a massive dam on the Klamath River has allowed salmon to return after a century\u2019s absence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the Pacific Northwest, a group called Salmon Returns<\/a> is reimagining watersheds from Alaska to California. The historic removal of a massive dam on the Klamath River has allowed salmon to return after a century\u2019s absence. Local tribes, such as the Yurok, are investing in reforestation, cultural revival, and new food systems. From carving redwood canoes to building fish processing facilities, the projects embody biocultural regeneration\u2014reviving both ecosystems and cultural traditions.<\/p>\n

In the Amazon, the Amazon <\/a>Sacred Headwaters Alliance<\/a>, representing 30 Indigenous nations, has launched initiatives ranging from solar-powered canoe companies to community-based vanilla cultivation. One striking project is a \u201cjaguar biocultural credit<\/a>\u201d system, in which the health of jaguar populations serves as an indicator for ecosystem stewardship. The credits are sold through Regen Network\u2019s blockchain-based platform, with early buyers including the Jaguar Tequila Company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese aren\u2019t abstract models,\u201d Power says. \u201cThey\u2019re living portfolios of projects designed by the people who know their land best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commons, reimagined<\/h5>\n

BioFi\u2019s work also intersects with the commoning movement,<\/strong> which seeks to revive collective stewardship of shared resources. Power sees BFFs as legal containers for modern commons\u2014whether it\u2019s a town square, a firehouse repurposed as a co-working hub, or even community-governed land trusts.<\/p>\n

Capital has been supreme for too long.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The challenge, of course, is reconciling external finance with bottom-up control. Almost no capital arrives without strings attached. But Power hopes BFFs can act as \u201cmembranes,\u201d inviting investors to release some control and trust the wisdom of place-based communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cCapital has been supreme for too long,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to flip that dynamic\u2014so that money serves life, not the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead she wants to develop bioregional banks, modelled on the U.S. system of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). Such a bank would allow citizens to deposit their savings locally, knowing the funds would be reinvested in regenerative projects in their own watershed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about aligning interests,\u201d she explains. \u201cIf your returns come from the destruction of the place you live, that\u2019s not really a return at all. A bioregional bank makes your prosperity inseparable from the health of your home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gathering momentum<\/h5>\n

The work of the BioFi Project is no lone effort. Nearly 700 people participate in the BioFi<\/a> community of practice<\/a>, joining monthly calls to explore everything from governance structures to storytelling strategies. Power and colleagues led a learning and design journey earlier this year that they called the BioFi Cultivator<\/a>. 22 teams from across the Americas participated, 18 of which launched their own BFFs.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have the luxury of tinkering around the edges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cSlow is smooth,\u201d she repeats, \u201cBut the movement is growing faster than we ever imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

The urgency behind Power\u2019s work is impossible to ignore. She often reminds listeners that humanity is living through the sixth mass extinction, a crisis that demands nothing less than a rethinking of our economic foundations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the luxury of tinkering around the edges,\u201d she says. \u201cWe need to reevaluate the premises of the financial system itself. Otherwise, the optionality tokens we call money won\u2019t buy us a livable future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samantha Power\u2019s book, BFFs: Reimagining Finance to Regenerate Our Planet,<\/em> is available for free as an e-book<\/a>, with print and Spanish editions also available. To learn more or join the community of practice, visit BioFi\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch the full interview <\/span>here<\/a>. This article, except for the quotes, was created with AI assistance.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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