INTRODUCTION

Greetings! I’ve just returned from back-to-back meetings of the Katoomba Group and the Nature Positive Summit, hosted by the Australian government. I wanted to share with you all some of what I saw and heard.

This was the 28th meeting of the Katoomba Group, an international working group led by Forest Trends that brings together an unusual group of leaders to solve the hard problems in driving value to nature. Katoomba events have been catalytic in the development of the World Bank’s BioCarbon Fund, Mexico’s national payments for ecosystem services fund, and Peru’s natural infrastructure water tariff — all flagship models in creative finance for nature.

We chose to return this year to Katoomba, Australia – where it all began 25 years ago – in large part because of the Nature Positive Summit that immediately followed our meeting: an important opportunity to help steer the global agenda for nature. I think we’re in a very unique window right now, which opened with the Nature Positive Summit and will continue with the biodiversity COP in Calí, climate negotiations next year in Belem, Brazil, and a (to be officially confirmed) COP31 in 2026 hosted by Australia and Pacific nations. All of these countries have high interest in putting nature in the center of climate action. Add to this the Brazil G20 Presidency’s focus on bioeconomy, which I hope will be carried forward by South Africa and the USA when they assume G20 Presidencies in 2025, and 2026, and we have the making of a major opportunity to drive changes that put a real economic engine behind nature restoration and protection.

What should be on that agenda? Katoomba Group participants have put forward a set of core principles for a transition to a nature-positive economy. We’ve also identified a number of initiatives we’ll be driving forward in the coming months and years together. Below, we share a report-out video, agenda, and recording of our meeting at the Taronga Zoo.

Most importantly, I encourage you to get involved. You can learn more about the Katoomba Group at its website. You can also join our LinkedIn group for updates and to network with other members. We are already planning our next gathering, leading into COP 30 in Brazil. I hope to see many of you there.

– Michael

Katoomba Group Statement to the Global Nature Positive Summit

Following the gatherings, the Katoomba Group released a statement to the Global Nature Positive Summit, held in Australia from October 8-10. The statement lays out key messages from the gatherings, commitments made by the Group, and a call to action for the Summit.

In a video created at the Katoomba gathering, participants discuss the significance of this global gathering, the collective action that is needed to build more value into nature, and how to get involved in this work.

Twenty-five years ago, a new NGO called Forest Trends brought together a small international group to the town of Katoomba to brainstorm over increasing capital flows to protect nature, how to “make trees worth more standing than cut down.” Earlier this month, the group returned to Katoomba to celebrate its 25th anniversary and reflect on the past, present, and future of realizing value in nature. In the first in a series of blog posts, FT Fellow Jim Salzman shares insights from the meeting’s three days of discussion.