Renature Agriculture

Today’s industrialized farming is threatening our food security. It accounts for 1/4 global greenhouse gas emissions. It’s highly vulnerable to climate change. It threatens our natural forests. 

Because it excludes nature. reNature promotes, designs and implements regenerative agroforestry to bring nature back into agriculture, restore depleted land, secure the economic resilience of farmers and tackle climate change. 

Companies, organizations and farmers now see the pressing need for change in the way we manage agricultural systems. By spreading implementation of agroforestry practices for some of the world’s most important commodities, reNature brings the change that is so needed.

Sustainable food systems challenge

Today’s industrialized farming threatens our food security. These challenges express themselves differently all over the world, but commonly include:

• Soil degradation
• Water scarcity
• Biodiversity loss
• Greenhouse gas emissions
• Vulnerability to climate change
• Economic instability
• Nutritional insecurity

For example, in Bangka, Indonesia, our project aims to tackle a combination of soil degradation, disease pressure, volatile commodity prices and changing climate, which are severely impacting the livelihoods of the island’s pepper farmers. Many are turning to monoculture cultivation of oil palm and rubber, or destructive livelihoods like mining. This drives deforestation, excessive use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, and exposure to poor working conditions. 

Simultaneously, food and agricultural companies are increasingly expected to be demonstrably improving their environmental and social impact. Internally, companies increasingly need to show themselves to be purpose-driven and “good for people and planet” to attract and retain skilled staff. A positive, “sustainable” image is not only about public relations, but a key Human Resources issue.

Global capacity to tackle these challenges in a commercially viable way is lacking and farmers need significant resources to support transition, especially those taking risks to innovate.

reNature enables farmers to adopt Regenerative Agroforestry through model farms, model schools and transition packages for a range of commodities. We inspire companies, organizations and consumers through communication, organizing immersive agroforestry experiences and giving talks.

reNature operates five core activities, in two main branches:

1. Implementation & Farmer Capacity Building

Farmers learn best from other farmers. Therefore, reNature’s strategy encompasses demonstration plots (Model Farms), capacity building structures (Model School)  and scaling up support (Transition Packages) to increase impact. These three service packages link into one another and can be combined in various ways

Model Farms are demonstration plots and a "starting point" for larger-scale programs for implementation and education.

Model Schools are long-term capacity-building programs running over multiple years, building deep agroforestry expertise within the local community. 

Transition Packages - reNature can develop packages of tools to help large numbers of farmers transition towards regenerative agroforestry.

2. Inspiration & Outreach

To inspire both individuals and corporate employees, reNature combines visibility with experience.

Changemakers can help with or get to know agroforestry first hand by helping farmers on agroforestry initiatives

Talks to spread the message of agroforestry, reNature also provides talks and lectures at conferences, private events, within companies, etc.

The primary beneficiaries are the farmers we work with and their communities. We operate in a range of locations with various scales of farm, from smallholders to medium- (e.g. 10-50ha) and large-scale producers (up to 25000ha). 

We collaborate with farmers to create effective, context-specific agroforestry solutions. We combine farmers’ local knowledge with scientific insights through collaborative design processes, and hands-on methods for transferring knowledge and establishing systems that meet the specific goals of the context.

For example, white pepper farmers in Bangka face interlinked challenges of volatile pepper prices, degraded soil, disease pressure and drought. We have worked with them to create an agroforestry system that rapidly builds soil (improving water-holding capacity), reduces pest pressure and diversifies incomes. This includes pepper as well as over 20 other tree species that generate either marketable products or key ecosystem services.

This highlights a key advantage of agroforestry: it can produce multiple valuable products. It is therefore logical for multiple off-takers to take part in developing new systems. For example, palm oil can be productively integrated with cocoa production. This establishes multiple valuable income streams for the farmer, while mitigating risk for the commercial partners investing in transition.

Regenerative agroforestry directly supports the revitalisation of agricultural landscapes while intensifying production, from smallholders to medium and large commercial farms. Agroforestry supports soil regeneration, pest management and improved water cycling of agricultural systems, reducing or eliminating farmers’ need for synthetic inputs, while maintaining or increasing productivity and sequestering carbon.

Our goal is to make regenerative agroforestry mainstream. This means making it appealing for businesses and farmers at large scales. We focus on creating systems that work with the goals of agricultural businesses, such as management efficiency, profitability, large-volume production and supply stability.

A growing number of innovative and energetic organisations are promoting regenerative agriculture and agroforestry. reNature fills a key niche in this ecosystem. We focus on collaboration to achieve common goals, rather than “competing”. Nevertheless, of the approximately 150 organisations we have identified in the regenerative agriculture space, 6 may significantly compete for clients:

• Propagate Ventures
• Terra Genesis
• Rizoma
• Holistic Management Intl.
• Ecotop Consult
• Vi Agroforestry

Our most important USP is that we act as catalysts for large scale agroforestry projects involving multiple partners. We bring parties together for impact at scales larger than individual organisations alone could achieve. For example, we are developing a silvopasture pilot on over 1000ha in Mato Grosso, Brazil, coordinating farmers, agroforestry experts, institutional researchers and commercial offtakers.

Further USPs include:

Applying agroforestry in commercial contexts. Agroforestry is traditional agricultural practice in many parts of the world. It has also been recognised in recent decades as a key conservation and development tool for smallholder farmers. However, application in production of commodity crops has been limited. We make agroforestry a compelling proposition for food & agricultural companies looking to secure a stable supply chain, and for farmers whose livelihoods depend on commodity production.

Inspiring change through marketing & communication. We communicate an inspiring message through innovative use of social media. In 2 years we have organically grown a social media following of over 30,000. Using modern marketing know-how, we inspire a movement of current and future leaders to make rapid, large-scale changes to agricultural systems worldwide.

reNature combines the novel application of a long-standing land management technology - agroforestry - with a collaborative business model, creating a movement of leading minds in the field of regenerative agriculture. This is how we will create impact on an ambitious scale.

Agroforestry is the integration of tree and agricultural crops or livestock, leading to beneficial ecological interactions between species. It has been practiced in many ways across many regions of the world throughout history - from the slash and burn of tropical landscapes, to forest gardens of Sri Lanka, and grazed orchards in Europe. 

We apply agroforestry as a low-input technology for large-scale, efficient production of agricultural and forest products. Our approach differs from traditional agroforestry practices because we optimise them for application in modern food and agricultural systems. We work to produce important global commodities while harnessing the power of diversification for environmental, economic and social resilience. 

Diversification makes farmers more resilient while maintaining environmental services such as nutrient and water cycles, carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Once established, it reduces the needs for inputs (organic or inorganic) from outside the system. 

We work with farmers to combine local knowledge with emerging scientific insights and efficient farm design, planning and management processes. This transforms the long-standing agricultural practice of agroforestry into a commercially competitive production method that simultaneously addresses some of the most pressing challenges of modern food systems.

The effectiveness of agroforestry for improving farm productivity and profitability, while regenerating landscapes and communities is well supported in peer-reviewed scientific literature. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) endorses agroforestry, stating that: 

“There is a growing body of scientific literature that demonstrates the gains accruing from agroforestry adoption. FAO recognizes these advantages and believes agroforestry can contribute to improve the environment and the lives of people.”

Agroforestry creates a range of benefits to soil health, water cycles, carbon sequestration and biodiversity. For example, in semi-arid Kenya, trees in agricultural systems reduced soil losses by between 87% and 98% (Atangana et al 2014). 

These environmental benefits also translate into direct benefits to farmers, such as reducing pest and disease pressures, and increasing productivity per hectare and profit. In Mexico, citrus agroforestry systems have been shown to be between 17% and 110% more profitable and 62% to 92% more productive than citrus monocultures (Krishnamurthy and Krishnamurthy 2011).

Agroforestry is very beneficial when applied appropriately in the right context. But farmers, communities and companies in many cases lack sufficient knowledge to realise these many benefits. It is reNature’s role to make that a reality.

Some key resources on the effectiveness of agroforestry include:

Agroforestry systems (peer-reviewed journal)

Advances in agroforestry (peer-reviewed special edition)

Tropical Agroforestry (Atangana et al, textbook)

Temperate Agroforestry Systems, 2nd ed. (Gordon et al, textbook)

World Agroforestry Centre (website)

UN FAO Agroforestry (website)

Our theory of change (ToC) has two layers. First, it relates to how we can find the most effective ways to generate meaningful transition in farming communities. Second, it relates to how we generate more widespread shifts in the food system. These two are closely linked. 

On the farmer level, change requires much more than transfer of knowledge. It involves deep interaction with the challenges, needs, capacities and motivations of people in a specific context. Our methods for working in the field focus on a step-wise approach to creating change, which is mirrored in our service offering (see “What is your solution?”). The first steps involve establishing a strong, direct connection with local partners, and working with them to create agroforestry solutions that meet directly with their needs and expectations, resulting in what we call “model farms”. These act as a base for generating locally relevant agroforestry knowledge, connecting with other farmers within a region or community, and spreading knowledge (model farms). Through this we are able to give dedicated support to a relatively small, core group of farmers within a community or region, building the legitimacy of agroforestry practices in-situ. On this solid basis we develop transition packages, which rapidly extend the adoption of agroforestry, for example through financial incentives, provision of necessary inputs (e.g. seedlings) and training. 

Simultaneously, we work to create the economic, logistical and political context that is needed to create wide-scale transformation. reNature positions itself amongst key stakeholders in the Food and Agricultural industries. It connects farmers and communities to companies buying and processing agricultural products (such as food and fibres). reNature creates synergies and acts as catalyser, connecting other relevant stakeholders, such as financial institutions (commercial and development banks & service providers), carbon trade companies, Civil Society Organisations, Research Centres and even Governmental Bodies.

This “systemic” work is essential for driving support for on-the-ground transitions to agroforestry. Our two-pronged ToC facilitates business leaders, politicians, financial institutions, farmers and communities to make rapid changes to produce agricultural products while doing good for people and planet.

Number of farmers directly served: 450

Number of farmers served in 1 year: 2,000

Number of farmers served in five years: 8,000-10,000

We will regenerate 1 million ha with agroforestry by 2030. To date we have regenerated 15ha of agricultural land in Indonesia, Brazil and Rwanda. But we select projects that can scale up: we are now developing projects on over 1,500ha. 

Goal 1 (2020-21): Develop projects across key locations

This year we will develop projects for key geographies and commodities, including sub-saharan Africa (coffee and cacao), SE Asia (oil palm) and Mexico (citrus). In Mato Grosso, Brazil we are developing a large-scale agroforestry system on 1,200ha for cattle and soy production. We are coordinating a group of partners, including the farmer, the Savory Institute, and a US-based global clothing brand. This will demonstrate a functional model for large-scale agroforestry projects.

Goal 2: Increase our capacity (2020-2022)

We will hire six additional team members to increase our business development and project development capacity. From 2021-2023 we will integrate more agroforestry expertise into our core team.

Goal 3: Increase numbers of projects, and scale up existing projects (2022-2025)

Our impact model uses strong local partnerships and knowledge developed on small scales (“model farms” and “model schools”) as a basis for rapidly scaling up. We expand agroforestry practices through “transition packages”, building financial and logistical partnerships to overcome widespread barriers to adoption. From 2020-2025, we will A) build model farms and model schools for many of the world’s largest commodities and B) develop transition packages for our existing projects, reaching 100,000-250,000ha.

We face a number of barriers to achieving our impact. Some of these are emerging, and we are still developing our approach (e.g. COVID-19). Other barriers are well established, and we have designed our impact model and business plan accordingly.

1. COVID-19. The current pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-1 is having significant impacts for farmers and throughout the supply chains of the companies that we work with. Fortunately, agroforestry directly mitigates many of these impacts (such as by creating food security for farmers through diversification). However, there is a significant risk that the economic impacts of the disease will reduce focus on ESG projects on the corporate agenda, with resources channelled towards “core business” functions. Economic downturn can lead companies to withdraw support for supposedly non-core business functions, such as investing in agroforestry projects that have more long-term benefits.

2. On the ground barriers to adoption. The farmers that we work with on the ground face significant barriers to adopting agroforestry practices, including a lack of access to finance, access to knowledge, access to key inputs. Socio-cultural barriers also influence willingness to change, especially in areas where agroforestry is not a traditional practice.

3. Commercial willingness to pay. We are seeing commercial interest in regenerative agroforestry rapidly expanding. However, the majority of food and agriculture companies still see agroforestry projects as “risky” or “expensive” in the short term. While some forward-thinking companies are committed to investing now for a resilient future, many are reluctant to innovate without assurance of an immediate financial return.

1. The COVID-19 pandemic is evolving fast. We are working hard to incorporate this into our financial and operational planning. We are communicating to strengthen the position of agroforestry on the corporate agenda and working with clients to emphasise that social, environmental and business resilience are directly related.

2. On the ground:

   1. Access to finance We create economically sound agroforestry systems. But where farmers cannot finance the initial transition themselves, we partner with commercial parties to cover costs & create financial incentives, access grants, and generate investable opportunities to draw in private capital.

   2. Access to knowledge Through our model farms and model schools, we not only “deliver” knowledge to our partner farmers, we work with them to actively build their agroforestry knowledge and capacity to train others. We create regional hubs that are increasingly independent, generating and sharing knowledge in-situ.

   3. Access to key inputs Where possible, our model farm and model school programs serve as local hubs for the production and distribution of agroforestry inputs, such as high-quality seedlings.

3. Commercial willingness to pay:

   1. We are a hybrid organisation. Our foundation is accumulating funds that can mitigate early-stage commercial risk. Where commercial funding is not available for high-impact projects, the foundation can support in the first stage. We also seek to participate in blended finance programs (e.g. the LDN fund), as well as coordinating private financial partners.

   2. We also focus on demonstrating the business logic of agroforestry. Our current projects are creating proof of concept to catalyse investment from more cautious players.

N/A

Core staff

• Full-time: 3
• Part-time: 3

Contractors and volunteers

• Contractors: Varied, 5+
• Volunteers: Varied, 4 consistent contributors

Founding team Felipe Villela and Marco de Boer drive reNature with youthful energy and 25 years of experience.

Felipe’s ambition is to make it possible to feed the world by 2050 using regenerative agroforestry systems, changing the production of the most harmful commodities. Marco believes that only through the bigger picture we can convince companies and organisations to actually renature the planet. They found a common goal to innovate agriculture, bring food security for millions of people and restore nature around the globe.

The core team -Leandro Viecili, Alexander Daniel, Eva Teekens, and Waas Thissen- combine on-farm and project & investment and business development experience from South & Central America, Europe and SE Asia. They create effective and client-driven agroforestry solutions for farmers across the globe.

Leandro is a Brazilian Forest Engineer and Lawyer, combining political sciences with the natural resources’ management. Throughout his 15+ years of experience, he was given different roles and developed a wide range of expertise from operational, commercial, and business development fields, to project management and technical analysis.

Alex is content creator and MSc graduate in Sustainable Development with expertise in International Development. Recent professional experiences focused on reforestation, agroforestry, sustainability certification and energy efficiency.

To improve the connection with the investors Eva was added to the team. Her years of experience in investment banking at Rabobank Foundation will come at hand with attracting funding for local projects. 

Coming from Wageningen, Waas is junior acquisition manager & content creator with an emphasis on research. 

There are a number of organisations working in the international regenerative agriculture market that enhance reNature’s value offering, if we work in partnership. In each of our projects we develop specific local partnerships. But we also seek collaborations that strengthen us strategically - either filling a gap in our own capacity, or enabling us to go further and faster in achieving impact. 

We need to generate more knowledge and examples of highly efficient commercial agroforestry, and the associated impacts (e.g. carbon sequestration). We also need to make agroforestry a viable financial investment, to channel resources on a large scale.

Our partnerships support us with these goals, for example:

• Embrapa (Brazil)

  • Embrapa are a leading Brazilian research institute. They play a key role in our Brazilian projects by providing monitoring and research capacity. This builds credible evidence for the positive impact of our projects. 

• 52Impact 

  • 52Impact are a satellite monitoring company that can give us access to fine-resolution site data anywhere in the world, for both site assessment and monitoring.

• World Agroforestry Centre

  • The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) are the leading organisation driving agroforestry adoption globally. We are working with them to develop innovative agroforestry projects, bringing it to the forefront of regenerative agriculture and landscape restoration.

• Meraki Impact 

  • Meraki Impact is managing one of the world’s leading blended finance models for landscape restoration. We are working with Meraki to develop large-scale, investable projects for regenerative agroforestry in Mexico.

reNature Investments BV is a privately-owned consultancy company driving the application of regenerative agroforestry within commercial supply chains worldwide. We create large-scale regeneration of landscapes by offering the following core services:

• Design and implementation of regenerative agroforestry practices (Model farms)

• In-situ capacity-building for farmers and agricultural professionals (Model schools)

• Monitoring and measurement of impact (All service packages)

• Transition programs to facilitate widespread uptake of agroforestry at landscape scales (Transition packages)

reNature is targeting stakeholders in the following sectors, either as clients, partners or beneficiaries: 

Supply-based commercial clients

• Food & Beverage Industry

• Fashion and Apparel industry

• Cosmetics & Drug Industry

• Timber, pulp & paper and other forestry industry

Non-supply clients/funding partners

• Carbon traders and offsets

• Family offices, traders and development banks

• Local governments and parks & protected area management bodies (public or private)

• Non-profit organisations (for example, conservation) for example, IKEA Foundation

Primary beneficiaries

• Client companies/corporations

• Farmers, cooperatives, and farming associations

• Local communities

We have four potential revenue generation mechanisms: 

1. Production

2. Commission

3. Donation

4. Mark-up

We are focusing on the first two revenue generation mechanisms.

We expect model farms to be our most frequent projects, especially in the coming two years. However, we expect model schools (which always include a model farm service) to be the most significant contributor to our revenues because of the higher net margin and a longer duration of the project. Transition packages will become more significant as our projects mature.

We highly value the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other organisations. Being part of an ecosystem of innovation can support our goals directly, and we hope to be able to support others. While we have expectations for what we need as an organisation (see our partnership goals below) we also know that opportunities can emerge that we do not expect. 

We are a rapidly expanding team and we have ambitious growth goals over the coming 4 years. While we have a very large international network, we need to build solid processes for recruitment, so that we can match people’s talents and professional goals to our organisation’s needs. 

MIT Solve can also support us in monitoring and evaluation of our projects (see partnerships description below). Measuring impact is still a challenge for us: we work in a range of contexts, we face some technical challenges and we are a young company that does not yet have M & E capacity internally. The ability to monitor and evaluate the impact of our work is key for us to drive business confidence in agroforestry solutions and increase willingness to pay.

The three core goals for expanding partnerships are:

Building a global network of technical staff & broadening our reach. We are aiming to establish a decentralised global network of practitioners in regenerative agroforestry, united under the banner of reNature and sharing knowledge, while serving local and regional goals. 

Monitoring and evaluation of impacts on a large scale. Monitoring and evaluation of our projects’ impacts is a key piece of the puzzle for driving large-scale commitment to agroforestry. We are seeking partnerships to strengthen our M & E capacity, to create a set of consistent comparable indicators that can be applied across all our projects. This monitor both within-plot impacts as well as the broader impacts of agroforestry on the landscape scale.

Finance for scaling up solutions. Increased financial resources are essential for creating the rapid changes needed in agricultural landscapes. We need partnerships with innovative foundations, institutions and private investors.

Preferred partners at MIT Solve

• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

• BMW Foundation

• Inter-American Development Bank

• Olam International

• UN Environment

Building a global network of technical staff & broadening our reach.

We are already engaged with or seeking to engage with organisations to support expanding our projects from the farm scale to the landscape scale, for example:

• Commonland (The Netherlands)

• Savory Institute (USA)

• The Nature Conservancy (USA)

Monitoring and evaluation of impacts on a large scale.

This can be supported by a number of both private and institutional partners. Specifically, partnerships could help us establish the impacts of agroforestry interventions for landscape dynamics such as water cycling, biodiversity and air quality. For example, MIT’s School of Sciences could be a valuable partner. Large-scale M&E would facilitate leveraging of more resources, with a greater potential for impact.

Finance for scaling up solutions. 

Many of the projects that we have in development can meet diverse impact and investment aims, but do not yet have funding. We are always looking to connect our work to communities of funders who are looking to effectively invest funds in high-impact work. 

Beyond this, we will be happy to explore opportunities for partnerships within the Solve community: especially those in the food & agriculture space who could support, or be supported by, regenerative agroforestry. For example, some of our project farmers in need of supply chain infrastructure can also be linked directly to others already working in the Solve ecosystem (e.g. ColdHubs).