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January 2011
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About Us
Verde Ventures provides support for small- and medium-sized businesses that contribute to healthy ecosystems and human well-being. Our investments deliver environmental, socioeconomic and financial benefits.
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Recent Developments at Verde Ventures
Porini Ltd – Kenya
Verde Ventures recently approved an investment in Porini Ltd. VV is very impressed at the marriage of the social, ecological and economic practices demonstrated by this company as it seeks to provide alternative incomes, secure a key conservation habitat and provide a quality hospitality experience in Kenya in a sustainable manner. The use of conservation leases in partnership with local landowners is a key tool in building viable payments for ecosystem services, and one that VV seeks to support. Our support will enable Porini to further implement their strategy and expand their valuable brand to Tanzania.
Finca San Nicolas - Mexico
Another investment recently approved is Finca San Nicolas. This is a 245 hectares coffee estate located near El Tacana Reserve in Chiapas, Mexico. The farm keeps 29 hectares of forest areas and produce organic and shade grown coffee for specialty markets. Verde Ventures will provide finance for pre and post harvest expenses that will assist in the continuation of their sustainable production system and environmental good practices.
Finca Montegrande – Mexico
Finally,Verde Ventures has resently approved the investment in Finca Montegrande. This finca is a 341 hectares coffee estate with almost 100 years of coffee production history. The farm limits with the buffer zone of El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve, which is connected through perennifolia forests corridors existent in neighbors’ farms. Furthermore, the farm has implemented good practices at coffee plantation and at milling facilities such as soil protection, reduction in agrochemicals application, and reduction in the amount of water utilized in processes. During the harvest 2010/2011, Verde Ventures will provide funding for working capital to finance pre and post harvest expenses. |
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Mexico
Verde Ventures Dividend - 2 Leatherback Turtle Nests at Playa Viva
Imagine being awakened in the middle of the night to be summoned to witness a critically endangered Leatherback turtle laying eggs on the beach minutes from your bed. For David Leventhal, co-owner of Playa Viva Sustainable Boutique Hotel located 35 kilometers south of Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa International Airport on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, such an opportunity materialized out of the moonlit night. David reported the happening in his recent blog post; “The turtle sanctuary volunteers had radioed in that they had come across a Leatherback turtle laying eggs about a half kilometer down the beach. Did I want to go? Of course!” and he was subsequently a witness to this tremendous occasion.
Within Conservation International’s (CI) Mesoamerica Hotspot, Playa Viva is an eco-tourism resort that offers an all-inclusive, beach-front, off the grid, natural experience close to a major tourist destination located approximately 35kilometers south of the city Zihuatanejo in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.
As sustainable tourism is one of four sectors of investment focus for Verde Ventures (VV), Playa Viva seemed an ideal match for VV’s vision of sustainable tourism acting as an effective mechanism in a green economy to secure critical habitats and provide alternative economic opportunities for local communities around the world.
Spearheaded by the husband and wife team of David Leventhal and Sandra Kahn, the Playa Viva Sustainable Hotel project recently acquired a loan from Verde Ventures to set out on tackling several challenging, but worthwhile tasks. The project is not only directly involved in supporting a turtle sanctuary, but also aims to engage in habitat restoration and ecosystem function, maintaining a conservation presence on an otherwise unmonitored stretch of beach spanning tens of kilometers. As the only formal employer on the beach, it will also play an important role in providing sustainable economic development for and will help to build capacity of the local community surrounding the resort.
In its role as supporter of La Tortuga Feliz turtle sanctuary manned by an all volunteer team from the nearby town of Juluchuca, Playa Viva will be aiding in the protection of turtle nests with high egg counts - five to ten nests of leatherback turtles (Red List CR), about the same number of green turtle nests (RL EN), and more than 2,000 nests of Olive Ridley turtles (RL VU) - and low hatch rates.
“The Leatherback Turtle is highly endangered,” wrote David Leventhal. He continued, “To give you an idea of how endangered, out of 200,000 turtles released on the beach here a few years back, less than 500 were Leatherback. That means less than a half of a percent of all turtles on these beaches are Leatherback.” Knowing this just emphasizes how extraordinary David’s being witness to a Leatherback laying eggs was. As he put it, “A one in a million chance that on this night, the earth would shake and a Leatherback would emerge from the waters at the right time, in the right place…and there I was, next to this glorious creature as it was laying her eggs.”
According to the IUCN Red List, populations of Leatherback Sea Turtles located in what was once their stronghold in the Pacific Ocean have “declined drastically in the last decade, with current annual nesting female mortalities estimated at around 30% (Sarti et. al. 1996, Spotila et. al. 2000).” Major threats that are contributing to this decline include illegal egg harvesting and poaching and the incidental trapping in oceanic fisheries. Other threats include the killing of females for oil extraction, Leatherback hunts and oceanic pollution – plastics in particular.
David attested, “Had the wrong group of human beings come across her, she would have been cut into meat and carried off to some underground market, slaughtered, her eggs purchased as precious aphrodisiacs.” Fortunately, for this female, a much more pleasant and hopeful experience came to pass, as she was able to finish laying her eggs, covering her tracks, and making several nest decoys to safeguard her eggs from predators. This is the nightly work of the volunteers of La Tortuga Viva turtle sanctuary, to protect these endangered sea turtles.
With Verde Ventures’ support and the watchful eye of intrepid stewards like the volunteers of La Tortuga Viva and the support of Playa Viva, inspirational occurrences such as this one will hopefully become the norm on every moonlit or non-moonlit night on this stretch of Pacific coast. |
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Financing Fisheries Change: Learning from Case Studies Verde Ventures is pleased to announce that its investment in The Integradora de Pescadores has been featured under "Promoting Conservation through Targeted Lending" in a report on Financing Fisheries Change requested by the Packard Foundation.
The report, based on eleven in-depth case studies, provides guidance to investors, project developers and NGOs on how to develop and incorporate innovative financing structures and partnerships into their conservation strategies. The Verde Ventures investment into Integradora in Mexico is featured in one case study. |
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About Verde Ventures Verde Ventures invests in small- and medium sized businesses that are strategically placed to contribute to conserving Earth’s biologically richest and most threatened areas. Verde Ventures support has enabled our partners to help protect and restore more than 761,106 acres (308,009 hectares) of important lands. Verde Ventures business partners also employ more than 15,000 local people in 13 countries.
The Verde Ventures business philosophy is based on our steadfast belief that economic opportunity and responsible stewardship of the Earth are at the core of successful conservation. |
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Photo Credits: © Porini Mara Camps, Mara, Kenya, photo courtesy of Porini; © Monte Grande Coffee Plant, photo by John Tiddweell; © San Nicolas Coffee Plant, photo by Sterling Zymbrum; © Leatherback Turtle photos courtesy of David Leventhal
Header Photo: Aloe Quiver tree: © Conservation International/photo by Haroldo Castro; East Africa Landscape: © Robin Moore | |
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Verde Ventures
Conservation International
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Arlington, VA 22202 Telephone: 1-703-341-2400
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