For the good, from the ground up.
Nature provides the leather in our shoes and handbags, the cotton in our T-shirts and jeans, and the wool and cashmere in our sweaters.
But making these materials comes with a high environmental cost — leading to deforestation, water pollution, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions.
The good news? There is a better way. By adopting farming practices that work with nature, we can protect nature and our climate, while supporting the people who grow and produce these raw materials.
That’s the idea behind the Regenerative Fund for Nature. The fund supports innovative approaches to agricultural production by working with nature, not against it — starting with the fashion industry — to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture while helping local communities thrive.
1 MILLION HECTARES
The fund aims to transform fashion supply chains by shifting 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of farms and grazing lands to regenerative agriculture spaces by 2026.
4 FASHION MATERIALS
The fund focuses on the fashion commodities with the highest production volumes and impact on nature - leather, cotton, wool and cashmere.
60,000 PEOPLE BENEFITTING
The fund currently benefits 60,000 farmers, ranchers, and herders around the globe.
13 PROJECTS IN 8 COUNTRIES
What is regeneration?
Regeneration is about restoring and revitalizing nature hand in hand with local communities — especially through the way we steward and manage land. It starts with collaboration: listening to and co-creating the vision of local communities, assessing the environmental, social, and economic context of the land and making decisions together.
In productive land use systems, regeneration means using practices that restore soil health, support biodiversity, improve water cycles, build climate resilience and strengthen local livelihoods. It’s not a one-time fix, but an ongoing process that evolves with the land and the people who steward it. The goal is to create landscapes that can renew themselves — generation after generation.
At its heart, regeneration is a mindset shift. It means looking beyond short-term outcomes and focusing on long-term well-being — for people, nature and the climate. It’s about building trust, shared values and lasting relationships that make real, lasting change possible.
Regenerative Fund for Nature principles
The Fund tracks its impact using a set of core principles, which were updated in 2024:
Soil Health
Increasing lands’ capacity to sequester carbon, hold and filter water and improve other elements of soil functionality.
Biodiversity
Protecting, restoring and enhancing biodiversity on farms and on project influenced areas.
Climate
Contributing to a stable future climate and enhancing the adaptive capacity of communities.
Water
Enhancing water stewardship on farms towards a healthier watershed.
Livelihoods
Supporting and improving the livelihoods of farmers and local communities.
Animal Welfare
Enhancing the welfare of farmed livestock and influenced wildlife.
Monitoring and evaluation
Measuring the fund’s impact is critical to ensuring lasting results. In 2024, the team launched a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework to track progress across the fund’s six core principles: soil health, biodiversity, climate, water, livelihoods and animal welfare. This framework translates the fund’s principles into clear measurable outcomes — using indicators, metrics, proven methods aligned with industry standards and best practices.
The “Regenerative Fund Measurement and Evaluation Framework” was designed to intentionally align with established measurement standards such as Science Based Targets for Nature (SBTN), Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting (WVBA), European Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) and Welfare Quality protocols, Textile Exchange Regenerative Outcomes Framework (TE ROF) and One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B). By aligning with industry practices and global standards, the fund can connect the efforts of the private sector, field operations and international standards and frameworks to drive broader integration across corporate industries.
Current projects and grantees
To reshape the fashion industry’s relationship with nature, the fund issues grants to implementation partners, farming communities, project leaders and non-governmental organizations that are implementing regenerative approaches:
Country: Mongolia
Core raw material: Goat cashmere
Overview: The Good Growth Company develops scalable models that connect landscape restoration with more sustainable supply chains. Over three years, the project has supported the development of a Rangeland Regeneration Toolkit, tested across over 342,000 hectares, integrating community organization, ecological science and sustainable business practices to promote rangeland regeneration and long-term livelihoods for Mongolian herders.
2024 highlight: Three communities covering 133,617 hectares deploying regenerative practices and have developed a long-term livestock management plan.
Country: India (Satpura-Pench Corridor)
Core raw material: Cotton
Overview: In India’s Satpura-Pench Tiger Corridor, Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network with COFE, SRIJAN and WWF-India to transform cotton farming — the backbone of the local economy. By introducing Wildlife Friendly® fiber certification and promoting regenerative practices, the project is helping create a corridor that connects protected tiger reserves through farmland and forest. This approach supports endangered species, helps reduce human-wildlife conflict and boosts economic livelihoods.
2024 highlight: The project focused on foundational activities, including stakeholder engagement, intervention planning, and hiring a Project Coordinator to lead implementation.
Country: India (Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Gujarat)
Core raw material: Cotton
Overview: Established in India in 2022, Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) is working to shift conventional cotton farming toward organic and regenerative practices — recognizing the potential of organic agriculture to benefit both people and the planet. OCA projects are testing innovative techniques such as using biochar — a carbon-rich soil enhancer that also helps store carbon —for carbon credit payments, making bio-based pesticides from local materials and helping farmers plant multiple food crops in the same field to improve soil health, while diversifying their income.
2024 highlight: More than 4,000 farmers, including 1,964 women, received training in organic farming practices at demonstration plots and government-run knowledge centers — reinforcing a shift toward more sustainable and cost-effective methods.
Country: Pakistan (Punjab and Sindh)
Core raw material: Cotton
Overview: In Pakistan, OCA is implementing a three-year project across Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, aiming to support conventional cotton farmers in transitioning to organic and regenerative practices across 10,000 hectares. The project focuses on improving seed availability, farmer training, and securing market commitments from brands. It will replicate successful approaches from OCA’s India programs, emphasizing soil health, biodiversity conservation and reducing synthetic inputs.
2024 highlight: Engaged 2,000 farmers in 41 villages on regenerative management practices.
Country: Uganda (Karenga-Kitgum, bordering the Kidepo Valley National Park)
Core raw material: Cotton
Overview: Launched in summer 2024, this project aims to improve soil health by reducing synthetic inputs — such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This can improve crop yields, while also restoring degraded land around cotton farms to create new wildlife corridors and reduce human-wildlife conflict. By 2027, the goal is to support over 2,000 cotton farmers with regenerative farming and restore up to 32,000 hectares of degraded land.
2024 highlight: 2,119 cotton farmers (50 percent women) were registered and surveyed to establish baseline data on household income, demographics and other social and economic factors.
Country: Argentina (Gran Chaco Biome)
Core raw material: Cattle leather
Overview: Solidaridad works with Creole and Indigenous smallholder cattle producers to promote sustainable management of grazing lands in Argentina’s Gran Chaco biome to promote more sustainable grazing. Established in 2022, the project uses a regenerative silvopastoral production model — integrating trees into livestock grazing areas — to restore degraded landscapes and support resilient livelihoods.
2024 highlight: 45 families received fencing materials to help protect 325 hectares of native forest.
Country: Spain (Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Comunidad Valenciana)
Core raw material: Cattle, goat and sheep leather
Overview: From 2022 to 2024, the project operated on eight pilot farms across 11,159 hectares, managing 5,540 animals, mainly goats. The first phase demonstrated that regenerative models can help protect high-value natural areas while improving farm profitability. The second phase, launched in 2024, expanded to 15 pilot farms and focuses on measuring ecosystem services, improving animal welfare, reducing chemical use, building a regenerative leather value chain, enhancing traceability and supporting the scalability of regenerative farming through local networks.
2024 highlight: 71 percent of participants reported a "high" or "very high" impact on farm profitability, mainly from improved feed management, deworming and milk quality. All participants reported improved well-being.
Country: Argentina (Northern Patagonia, Caldenal and La Pampa)
Core raw material: Cattle leather, sheep wool, Angora goat (mohair) and guanaco fiber
Overview: From 2022 to 2024, Wildlife Conservation Society worked with communities across 300,000+ hectares in Patagonia to shift livestock management practices toward more regenerative outcomes. Age old practices, like using guard dogs to naturally deter predators, were combined with certification systems, ecosystem monitoring and price premiums for regenerative and wildlife-friendly fibers to create a comprehensive landscape-based approach. The project has been extended for three years.
2024 highlight: 66 percent of producers received a 15 percent premium over the market price for their merino wool and mohair production.
Country: France (Midi-Pyrénées)
Core raw material: Sheep leather
Overview: Epiterre works to improve biodiversity and environmental health by increasing fodder crop diversity and demonstrating the ecological and economic benefits of regenerative practices. Partnering with a small-scale cooperative of livestock breeders, the initial objective was to sow 200 hectares of sainfoin, a nutrient-rich forage crop. In 2024, the focus shifted to scaling the project and clearly communicating the environmental and financial benefits of regenerative practices.
2024 highlight: Significant efforts were made in field data monitoring and contract implementation. This sets the stage for the first payments of the second wave of environmental service contracts in early 2025, marking a key milestone in the Epiterre project’s evolution.
Country: South Africa (Eastern Cape)
Core raw material: Sheep wool
Overview: Conservation South Africa, a Conservation International affiliate, has launched an expansive and ambitious effort to help rural farmers graze their livestock in ways that allows the land to rest and recover. In 2024, the project expanded to include six grazing associations, aiming to help farmers profitably enter the wool market. From 2021 to 2023, the project improved management on 13,000 hectares and helped two associations gain direct access to the South African wool market, increasing herders’ incomes.
2024 highlights: 365 farmers (38 percent women) were connected to the wool market. 12 farmers completed wool classing training and 30 participated in a workshop to improve governance and profitability. A total of 17,049 kg of wool were successfully integrated into the market.
Current partners
Conservation International is working to promote regenerative agriculture as a global solution for people, nature and the climate. By combining science, field programs, corporate partnerships and government engagement, Conservation International is aligning stakeholder commitments and investments in priority landscapes to drive conservation, sustainable production and improved livelihoods at scale. In addition, Conservation International manages the fund and provides technical input into project selection and implementation.
A global Luxury group, Kering manages the development of a series of renowned Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods and Jewelry: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin, Ginori 1735 as well as Kering Eyewear and Kering Beauté. By placing creativity at the heart of its strategy, Kering enables its Houses to set new limits in terms of their creative expression while crafting tomorrow’s Luxury in a sustainable and responsible way. We capture these beliefs in our signature: “Empowering Imagination.”
Inditex is one of the world’s largest fashion retailers -with brands as Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home, operating in more than 200 markets through its online platform and stores. Its integrated business model is focused on meeting customer demands through a quality fashion proposition and a unique customer experience. The Group is firmly committed to sustainability, with ambitious goals as using only preferred textile fibers by 2030, achieving net zero emissions by 2040 and promoting nature conservation.