Case Studies Provide Playbook for Projects That Work

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Paulson Institute, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today released Financing Nature Report 2026: A Mid-Decade Update: From Isolated Progress to Implementation at Scale, which underscores the importance of protecting biodiversity and assesses the current magnitude of the financing nature gap. Since 2020, the financing gap has nearly doubled from $711 billion to $1.317 trillion a year.

“I’ve always believed that a healthy planet is good for business, and it’s far cheaper to prevent environmental damage than to clean it up afterward,” said Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Chairman of the Paulson Institute. “Governments today spend more in a single month on subsidies that harm nature than they spend protecting it in an entire year. No other single action would unlock more capital for nature than reforming those subsidies, and none is more overdue. Where governments have gotten the incentives right, capital has begun to follow.”

“The conservation community has helped pioneer models that move real capital into conservation. These case studies are proof that we can protect nature and grow economies if we have the right people and programs in place,” said Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy. “That means governments, businesses, investors and our partners on the ground align their climate, nature, and development plans before committing money, not after. We are not starting from zero. We are starting from a decade of evidence about what works, and this report is a call to build on it.”

The case studies in the report and key recommendations show firsthand how both private and public institutions have moved the needle to protect nature.

“We no longer lack mechanisms for financing nature. We just need to deploy them at scale. And fast. Project Finance for Permanence deals, maturing carbon markets, impact investing, and other approaches offer promising ways forward,” said Carter Roberts, President & CEO of World Wildlife Fund. “This report proves these strategies work. But it also makes clear we need to deploy them at the pace and scale nature loss demands.”

The full report here.

Fact Sheet:

Media Contacts

Kristin Gomez, Paulson Institute | kgomez@paulsoninstitute.org | 202-374-2398

Rachel Winters, The Nature Conservancy | rwinters@tnc.org | 267-210-2189

Seth Larson, WWF | Seth.Larson@wwfus.org | 401-265-9350

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SOURCE The Paulson Institute