With many ecosystems rapidly declining, and some at risk of collapse, there is now a greater understanding than ever of the importance of ecosystem integrity and resilience. Not only are healthy ecosystems vital to maintaining the Earth’s biological diversity and the natural capital that sustains human life and well-being, but they are also critical to the fight against climate change.

Ecological restoration has become an international priority, for which major financing is necessary. However, due to the inherently unpredictable and dynamic nature of ecosystems, and the potential impact of this on investments, there can be a certain amount of reluctance when it comes to financing ecological restoration initiatives.

SCOR proposes to bridge the “gap” between the need and the desire to finance ecological restoration projects, by de-risking financing opportunities through a specially designed insurance product, the Restore Product, underwritten by SCOR’s Syndicate at Lloyd’s of London. Basically, the purpose of this new insurance product is to support ecological restoration projects whose planned recovery trajectories have been adversely impacted by pre-defined perils. This forms part of SCOR’s wider nature restoration and conservation insurance initiative, NatReCo.

“We are delighted to present this insurance product, which demonstrates SCOR’s innovative product development capabilities and endeavors to address global issues which affect societies by de-risking financing for ecological restoration. We believe insurance has an opportunity to play an important role in contributing to the actions required to mitigate and pre-empt the ongoing environmental challenges we are facing,” says Jean-Paul Conoscente, CEO of SCOR P&C.

In line with its raison d'être, and in collaboration with the international non-profit organization the Society for Ecological Restoration (“SER”), SCOR has developed a standards-based approach to its underwriting process to ensure any restoration project insured by SCOR’s Restore Product will advance ecological restoration and commit to integrity and transparency in all its related actions. SCOR will also engage SER-certified practitioners globally to support the claims evaluation process.

In bringing this insurance product to market, SCOR’s own internal experts are supported by a diverse group of advisers with decades of technical experience in this field, including a Chair Emeritus, IUCN, Commission on Education and Communication; a Climate Smart Agriculture Expert & Entrepreneur; a former CEO of NatureServe, a spinoff of The Nature Conservancy; an Executive Director of SER and International Policy Lead at SER; a Chair Emeritus, IUCN, World Commission on Protected Areas; a former Senior Partner of an international law firm; and a Senior Conservation Scientist.