L’Oréal’s Nature Regeneration Fund has invested in three new projects aimed at preserving biodiversity: NetZero, ReforesTerra and Mangroves.Now.
The group says that the projects were chosen for their approaches to soil carbon capture, reforestation and mangrove restoration, as well as their potential to generate a positive impact on the environment and local communities.
NetZero is a French climatech company that operates in tropical regions, such as Cameroon and Brazil. It specializes in the long-term capture of atmospheric carbon by transforming agricultural residues into biochar, a non-polluting carbon that can be used to regenerate degraded soils.
ReforesTerra aims to restore 2,000 hectares of land degraded by ranching in the Amazon. The project will engage smallholder farmers to directly plant new trees and create an environment for the natural regeneration of forests in the lower Rio Jamari basin of Rondônia.
Mangroves.Now helps to develop community-based mangrove restoration projects in South Asia, as the region has been the most affected by the deforestation of mangroves over the past 30 years.
The L’Oréal Regeneration of Nature Fund was created in 2020 and is endowed with €50m for impact investment. The fund has committed €22m in projects to–date. The first recipients in 2021 were UK rewilding company Real Wild Estates Company (RWEC) and tech start-up Rize, which works to speed up the low-carbon agricultural transition in Europe. The Fund is managed by Mirova Natural Capital, a subsidiary of Natixis Investment Managers.
L’Oréal claims that by 2030 the fund will have contributed to restoring one million hectares of degraded ecosystems, created hundreds of jobs and contributed to capturing 15-20 million tonnes of CO2.