Investing in Mangroves 2025

should be followed, to ensure that IPs & LCs are fully bought-in to the project. Projects should work with community leadership to identify mutually valuable targets for the project, which will in turn lead to more effective and successful mangrove-positive action. Additional complexities include the following: –Community leadership does not always represent the best interests of the community or landscape.102 –Reporting requirement formats may have to be modified to match IP & LC practices and local languages. 103 –How authority is exercised within sustainability programmes is more appropriate than who holds authority. 104 –Governance is an ongoing process of negotiated interests and should be culturally appropriate and locally led where possible; this often goes beyond guidelines within existing policies and programmes.105 –While deep IP & LC engagement is essential to effective projects, companies and organizations must ensure they do not place excessive “cultural load” (i.e. demands for consultation and project responsibility that may be at odds with cultural norms) on IPs & LCs, which can cause discomfort, stress and strain and can exacerbate past cultural tensions.106 Corporations involved in project development should invest in trust-based relationships and maintain rapport with IPs & LCs through regular in-person meetings, from the visioning stage of project development through to implementation (see Table 3). Corporations should work directly with project developers, NGOs and local universities with long-standing relationships in the project area to facilitate meaningful and trusted engagement with IPs & LCs, both to ensure high-quality projects and to accelerate the project development process. 3.2 Multi-stakeholder collaboration unlocks more and better engagement opportunities 3.3 Sustainable mangrove investments ensure local communities are incentivizedThe urgent need for combined people, nature and climate solutions requires a collaborative approach. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is an important enabling condition for scaling-up mangrove-positive action, whether that involves creating broader project coalitions or capacity building between partners to enhance a shared understanding of opportunities and challenges. Corporations should seek such collaboration to successfully implement sustainable business practices, ensure streamlined and aligned policies, and de-risk finance over the long-term. Public-private-philanthropic partnerships (4Ps) enable the private sector to advance their investment activities, while philanthropies de-risk, test and offer security on those investments, and the public sector creates a positive enabling environment. Through 4Ps, early-stage investors get to build capabilities and thought leadership alongside the investment process, later investors can deploy seed capital and other resources, while partners can target new areas for project intervention. Establishing a System Map (Figure 3) is a helpful first step in planning for any mangrove-positive action to ensure all relevant stakeholders are engaged. Socio-economic incentives have a front-and-centre role to play in the long-term success and practical effectiveness of mangrove-positive initiatives, by ensuring that the potential value of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to projects is included. Socio-economic incentives can include upfront cash payments for project engagement, economic shares of project upside, job creation and stability of worker compensation. To design effective incentives for a project, the interests of project proponents should be understood, especially the interests of IPs & LCs, which may include livelihoods and family needs. Any engagement must appropriately consider the economic vulnerability of IPs & LCs. IP & LC incentives should also reflect values beyond socio-economics and include a holistic and contextually adaptable definition of well-being, which includes income, assets, health, security Projects should work with community leadership to identify mutually valuable targets for the project, which will in turn lead to more effective and successful mangrove-positive action. Investing in Mangroves: The Corporate Playbook 30