LocationsMaking Biodiversity Finance Work in Tiger Landscapes
March 2, 2026
When people talk about biodiversity finance, it often sounds abstract. In reality, it usually comes down to a simple equation: conservation-friendly businesses exist, communities want to protect their landscapes, and banks have capital—but the three rarely connect.
Biodiversity finance is often discussed in terms of nature-based solutions (NbS), yet translating these ideas into investable opportunities on the ground remains challenging.
Capital is available, but conservation friendly MSMEs are not yet bankable.
My work focuses on bridging that gap—helping conservation-friendly micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in tiger landscape buffer zones become visible, viable, and finance-ready for channeling resources to where they are needed. In practice, many NbS in tiger landscapes are delivered through these enterprises operating in and around protected areas, so we need to invest more in them.
Tiger landscapes are one place where the challenge of biodiversity finance becomes tangible. Beyond protecting a single species, they are large, connected ecosystems that sustain water, food security, and livelihoods for millions of people. The challenge is ensuring that economic activity across these landscapes supports conservation, rather than undermining it.
When tigers thrive, nature survives
Thailand is one of the few places in Southeast Asia where wild tiger numbers are recovering. After decades of decline, the trend has begun to shift, with the national population now estimated at around 200 individuals and growth concentrated in the Western Forest Complex (see figure below)—the only landscape in the region where tiger numbers are increasing. This recovery reflects decades of investment in protected areas, law enforcement, and habitat management.
At the same time, it highlights a critical reality: sustaining this progress depends not only on what happens inside protected areas, but on how land, livelihoods, and economic activity are managed and financially supported in the surrounding buffer zones—where conservation and development intersect.
Tiger Numbers Recorded by Camera Traps in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex: Huai Kha Khaeng and Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuaries (Duangchantrasiri et al., 2024)
Life and enterprise at the forest edge
In Thailand’s tiger landscape buffer zones—areas where communities live and work alongside protected forests and wildlife corridors—many conservation-friendly MSMEs, such as coffee producers, medicinal herb growers, community enterprises, and eco-tourism operators, operate with limited collateral and high perceived risk. They are often “too big for microcredit, too small or risky for banks,” even when their business models can reduce pressure on forests and support local livelihoods.
What this looks like on the ground
During a scoping visit to Kanchanaburi Province, part of Thailand’s Western Forest Complex in late 2025, we met community enterprises operating in exactly this space—where conservation and livelihoods are inseparable. Farmers cultivating robusta coffee described how the crop helps deter elephants from food crops, reduces human–wildlife conflict, and provides more stable income than annual monocultures. Yet despite strong market demand and clear conservation benefits, most enterprises still struggle to access finance due to limited collateral, slow cash flows, and perceived risk.
Site visit in Kanchanaburi, Southern WEFCOM & TLIF target tiger landscapes across 23 provinces
Across Thailand’s tiger landscapes, thousands of conservation-friendly MSMEs operate in buffer zones around protected areas, but many fall into the “missing middle”—too large for microfinance, yet too small or risky for conventional bank lending, leaving them with limited access to capital to unlock nature-positive business opportunities. Without targeted support, promising business models in agroforestry, community enterprises, and eco-tourism remain invisible to finance.
Why finance fails here
One reason finance continues to fall short in tiger landscape buffer zones is that the most critical actors are often invisible. Between smallholder producers and larger buyers sits a “missing middle” of suppliers, cooperatives, processors, and intermediary enterprises. These actors aggregate products, ensure quality standards, and connect farmers to markets—but they are frequently under-capitalized and overlooked by both commercial finance and development support.
Site visit in Kanchanaburi, Southern WEFCOM
Opportunities for conservation-friendly MSME investment
Across Thailand’s tiger landscape corridors and buffer zones, conservation-friendly MSMEs vary widely in both capability and access to finance. Many are under-capitalized despite strong conservation potential, while other activities attract finance because they are familiar and fast-return—but can create negative impacts on ecosystems.
Moving conservation-friendly MSMEs toward bankability—capability and capital must improve together
- High potential, but capital constrained: agroforestry and medicinal plants, as well as coffee and cacao, can be strong nature-positive investment opportunities, but longer crop cycles and limited collateral make growth finance difficult.
- Niche models with transaction barriers: non-timber forest products (NTFPs), eco-tourism, and community-based carbon can generate conservation value, but often need aggregation, partnerships, or bundling to overcome high transaction costs.
- Finance-accessible, but high ecological risk: short-cycle commodity crops (e.g., cassava, maize/corn, sugarcane) can be easier to finance, yet may increase soil degradation, emissions from residue burning, and human–wildlife conflict in sensitive buffer zones.
Blended finance and targeted technical assistance help shift enterprises toward the “green, investible zone”—strengthening capabilities while unlocking appropriate capital, so nature-positive business models can scale.
How TLIF makes enterprises investible through two pathways
Tiger Landscapes Investment Facility (TLIF) operates through two complementary components: advisory for enterprises and risk assurance for local banks. The Technical Assistance Facility, led by UNDP, works directly with conservation-friendly MSMEs and their partners to strengthen investment readiness—through business and financial advisory, sector-specific expertise, and market access support—while reinforcing biodiversity outcomes. In parallel, a portfolio guarantee administered by UNCDF and delivered with local banks, helps reduce risk of lending to enterprises that would otherwise be seen as too risky or unfamiliar. Neither component works effectively on its own: technical assistance improves enterprise quality, while the guarantee helps translate that readiness into actual lending decisions.
TLIF blended finance approach
Early learnings and ways forward to support Thailand’s tiger landscapes
Several early lessons have emerged from the feasibility work that helps clarify why mobilizing biodiversity finance in tiger landscapes is challenging yet necessary, and how it should move forward.
- Investable enterprises do not emerge automatically—even where strong conservation intent exists. Across tiger landscape buffer zones, many MSMEs demonstrate clear biodiversity benefits and community value, yet few are immediately ready for investment. Financial records are often informal, productio ole in connecting smallholders to markets. These actors aggregate products, ensure quality, and reduce transaction costs—but they are frequently under-capitalized and n capacity is uneven, and market linkages remain fragile. Identifying investable opportunities requires deliberate, ground-up engagement rather than relying on existing datasets or assumptions of a ready-made pipeline.
- The “missing middle” is the critical leverage point. The study highlights that suppliers, cooperatives, processors, and intermediary enterprises play a decisive roverlooked by both banks and development programmes. Strengthening this tier is essential; focusing only on smallholders or end producers is unlikely to unlock sustainable finance at scale.
- Land tenure and risk shape financial decisions as much as business potential. In buffer zones and forest communities, land-use arrangements such as Sor Por Kor 4-01 and Kor Tor Chor limit the use of land as collateral, directly affecting access to finance. At the same time, exposure to climate shocks and human–wildlife conflict increases perceived risk for lenders, even when enterprises have strong demand and conservation value. Finance solutions must therefore be designed around these structural realities, not layered on top of them.
- Biodiversity finance requires integrated enterprise models, not single-income solutions. No single activity—whether agroforestry, non-timber forest products, eco-tourism, or carbon credits—can provide sufficient resilience on its own. More promising pathways combine multiple nature-positive activities, diversify income streams, and align conservation incentives with livelihoods. In this context, finance becomes a tool to reinforce sustainable practices, rather than a reward that arrives after conservation has already succeeded.
Building a system that can scale
TLIF is focused on building the foundations for a system that can scale—strengthening enterprises, engaging domestic financial institutions, and testing how blended finance can work in complex landscapes. Over time, the aim is to generate practical lessons that inform how biodiversity finance is designed, deployed, and replicated, both within Thailand and beyond.
This effort depends on partnership. Working with domestic banks and state financial institutions helps translate conservation-friendly business models into lending decisions. Engagement with policymakers ensures that financing approaches are aligned with national biodiversity and development priorities. At the same time, collaboration with civil society organizations and long-standing conservation partners—including members of the Tiger Conservation Coalition—grounds the work in local realities, conservation science, and community trust built over decades. Together, these partnerships help ensure that finance does not operate in isolation, but as part of a broader ecosystem that supports both viable enterprises and resilient landscapes.
Success, therefore, will not be measured only by the volume of capital mobilized, but by whether finance begins to work differently—supporting enterprises that sustain livelihoods while conserving tiger landscapes.
Looking ahead
Biodiversity finance behaves differently from other sectors. Cash flows are slower, risks are higher, and ecosystems are diverse—meaning there is no one-size-fits-all business model. Yet this is precisely where biodiversity and climate impacts matter most.
I’ve spent much of my career working at the intersection of conservation and development. What continues to motivate me is working on how finance can be designed to reflect the realities of landscapes where conservation and livelihoods are deeply intertwined. Beyond policy and finance, this logic increasingly shapes everyday consumption, as demand grows for deforestation-free and conservation-friendly products that connect markets to how land is actually managed.
