Moringa is a EUR 84m investment fund which targets profitable large scale agroforestry projects with high environmental and social impact, located in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The fund makes equity investments of EUR4-10m into projects and adds value via its technical skills, environmental and social know how and global network. The fund leverages the inherent sustainability of agroforestry to distinguish itself from other land-based investment approaches and to build genuine sustainability into its projects.

Agroforestry will become a central element in the global response to the growing demand for sustainable agricultural and timber products. Agroforestry also counters global warming by planting trees, conserves biodiversity by its inherent diversity and alleviates poverty by providing opportunities to local communities.

It exploits biological synergies between trees and crops or livestock to produce better land management, higher productivity, higher and more sustainable incomes for local populations, reduced project risks and positive environmental and social impacts.

Moringa’s vision is to provide financial returns for its investors and for local communities while contributing to building environmental and social resilience of land-use.

Agroforestry provides a profitable alternative to the unsustainable land use practices which drive deforestation. Compared with these practices, well-designed and well-managed agroforestry projects provide:

• - better risk mitigation in the short and long term;
• - higher profitability in the long term.

IMPACT

Agroforestry

Agroforestry is the spatial or temporal combination of trees and crops or animals, with biological and economic interactions which leads to higher productivity, reduced risk, more stable incomes for local people, and positive environmental impacts.

Tropical agroforestry projects typically combine forestry activities (timber, industrial tree crops or fruit trees) with cattle, staple food crops or cash crops. The combination of both yearly revenue streams and long-term profitability allows projects to achieve profitability sooner and in a more sustainable manner.

Moringa’s agroforestry projects create economic benefits for investors and local communities while contributing to building environmental and social resilience of land-use. Specifically, the combination of trees and other woody plants with agricultural crops or animal husbandry contributes to:

• - Soil improvement, erosion-control, water availability and favourable micro-climatic conditions;
• - The sustainable production of timber and firewood, as well as tree crops (fruit and nuts) and agricultural crops, thus avoiding deforestation in adjacent forest areas;
• - Higher productivity and profitability;
• - Resilience in relation to changing climatic conditions;
• - Social stability, local entrepreneurship and employment;
• - Long-term viability of the local economy and livelihood of local communities.

Targets

Moringa promotes an integrated landscape approach of investment, advancing continual learning, adaptive management, awareness of multiple scales issues and interactions, landscape multifunctionality, participatory approach and joint company/community value creation. Through the development of outgrowing schemes, Moringa intends to strengthen stakeholder capabilities and increase landscape and farmers’ resilience.

Agroforestry is seen as a catalyst for creating shared value among an integrated value chain and a means to create socio-economic synergies and enhance livelihoods alongside with climate change mitigation and adaptation.

This holistic approach appears as a new way of financing landscape – an approach that was lacking before – bringing different actors together and leading to inclusive value chains and triple win impacts. Main focuses of Moringa’s investments contribute to the achievement of 10 of the SDGs.

Sustainability

Sustainability underpins all aspects of Moringa’s approach. Focusing on four elements in a competitive context

• - strengthening local context and capitalizing upon public-private partnerships;
• - increasing product value and reinforcing links with competitive markets;
• - developing strong supply chains through the creation of clusters and;
• - improving land use while increasing productivity and tree cover.

Moringa aims to show that it is possible to achieve both profitability and positive social and environmental impacts at the same time, bringing a positive change to the overall ecosystem of the investee company and a path towards sustainable development.

To ensure this positive change, Moringa follows strict guidelines – an Environmental Social and Gouvernance Management System (ESGMS) – first to avoid social and environmental risks and then to foster positive impacts (i.e. IFC performance standards, FAO principles, ILO conventions, OECD guidelines, etc.).