Key Points:
NESsT y CATALYZE Perú han puesto en marcha una nueva asociación que mejorará el acceso a la financiación de las pequeñas y medianas empresas que generan desarrollo económico, creando puestos de trabajo de calidad para las comunidades desatendidas y apoyando al mismo tiempo la conservación de los bosques en la Amazonia peruana.
The Amazon biome is a major pillar of life on earth – it is home to 30 million people and 3 million different species of animals. Recently, human-induced deforestation has contributed to a significant reduction in arable land and led to extreme climate conditions, threatening the livelihoods of local communities.
CATALYZE Peru is USAID's global project which seeks to increase capital mobilization and financing from local and international financial intermediaries to companies operating in the Peruvian Amazon region.
NESsT provides financing and business mentoring to enterprises in the Peruvian Amazon. These high-impact enterprises operate in sustainable value chains such as Brazil nuts or Sacha Inchi and promote the economic participation of women, youth, smallholder farmers, and indigenous peoples.
NESsT has partnered with CATALYZE Perú to provide financing to small and medium enterprises in regions of the Peruvian Amazon that are characterized by high biodiversity, including Madre de Dios, San Martin, Ucayali, Loreto, and Junín. The partnership seeks to promote capital mobilization that will support sustainable development in the rainforest, by providing enterprises with the capital they need to scale and expand, generating economic development with new job opportunities for underserved communities while safeguarding the forest.
"We work with financial institutions to promote businesses in the Amazon and the investment opportunities we have found. According to a study conducted by CATALYZE Peru in 2020, approximately 122,000 formal companies operate in the Peruvian Amazon. One thousand of them are medium to large companies and the rest are SME, among which there is an estimated financing gap of US$829 million in the agricultural sector alone, a figure that represents an important opportunity for financial intermediaries." - Javier Freyre, CEO of CATALYZE Peru.
The Peruvian Amazon
The Amazon biome is a major pillar of life on earth. Exceptional in scale and diversity, the rainforest is home to 30 million people consisting of more than 350 ethnic groups and harbors more than 3 million different species of animals.
In recent years, around 17% of the trees globally in the rainforest have been cut down due to unsustainable commercial activities such as soy production, illegal mining, and cattle ranching.
“The Amazon basin communities build their livelihoods around many agriculture and forest products that could provide income all year round and are environmentally sustainable.“ - Christiane von Koeller, NESsT Fund Portfolio Manager
Involving local communities in development conversations and decisions reduces poverty and creates more climate-smart, resilient, and inclusive global food systems; their experience and traditional knowledge can inform the sustainable production of goods that meet global demands for food and natural resources without damaging the planet and compromising the needs of future generations.
Shanantina, NESsT Fund Portfolio
NESsT has been financing Peruvian Amazon enterprises since 2015. Currently, it is supporting a portfolio of high-impact enterprises that improve the livelihoods of marginalized individuals including women, youth, smallholder farmers, and indigenous people. These enterprises span across 15 sustainable value chains and adopt regenerative practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent soil erosion, restoring the habitat while reinforcing the resilience of local communities. They are involved in sustainable value chains such as Brazil nuts, coffee, cacao, eco-tourism, and sacha inchi.
“Based on our experience of investing in the Amazon, we see that the dearth of experienced financial management and access to more flexible, patient capital constrains the growth of many of these enterprises. The partnership with CATALYZE helps address both of these issues. ” – Chad Sachs, NESsT Fund Director
Through its Fund, NESsT offers loans that range from $50,000 to $500,000 to underserved micro and small enterprises that lack the credit history and collateral needed to access traditional commercial funding – these enterprises mostly source from smallholder farmers who have fewer than three hectares of land. To improve their ability to raise capital, NESsT supports the enterprises to develop financial management systems and generate financial statements.
“By providing financing and business assistance to small enterprises in the Peruvian Amazon, we seek to generate quality employment opportunities for 2,500 individuals and contribute to the conservation and restoration of 850,000 hectares of the rainforest ”
The CATALYZE Perú Project is made possible by:
