Funding to Scale Rewilding: the case of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda in Mexico

Across the rewilding movement, philanthropic funding remains essential — but rarely sufficient on its own. To help rewilding practitioners build more resilient, diversified funding models, the Funding to Scale Rewilding series held by the Global Rewilding Alliance will spotlight replicable financing models developed by fellow practitioners, platforms that connect rewilding organisations to investors and other funding sources, and expert insight into how funders think and what makes a project fundable. This session features Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG), whose work in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve in Mexico covers 1 million acres with 618 communities, that is some 100,000 inhabitants. They join us to discuss their diversified, largely self-sustaining funding model. The webinar will dive into the learning curve that comes with innovating a local solution where the private sector, government and civil society work together. Since 1991, GESG has involved smallholders in carbon. Today, the system includes high biodiversity areas and a unique transparent transaction software with OpenForests, to provide a high integrity product called Carbono Biodiverso. Currently over 900 individuals covering over 40 thousand hectares are benefiting from this financing mechanism. Speakers will walk through the state government tax, private sector obligations, and, what the process involves, the successes and challenges along the way, and how it fits alongside their other funding streams.