To mark the first edition of the ‘Roquelaure Companies & Biodiversity’, organised at the behest of Sarah El Haïry, French Secretary of State for Biodiversity, Mirova Foundation, the endowment fund of Mirova, a mission-driven company specialising in sustainable finance, is pleased to announce the three winners of its second call for projects, ‘S’engager au service du vivant : Préserver les forêts et transformer les pratiques agricoles’ (Stepping up on behalf of the living world: Preserving forests and transforming farming practices). The three grantee associations will receive support totalling €510,000 over three years.
The goal of Mirova Foundation is to strengthen initiatives that offer solutions by offering personalised support over a three-year period. The three winners will benefit from a bespoke support programme covering three areas: financial sponsorship, skills sponsorship and projects’ visibility.
Each in its own field, the three organisations supported are all contributing to advancing practices that promote forests and their ecosystems, as well as transforming practices in the area of regenerative agriculture:
Sylv’ACCTES
Sylv’ACCTES is an association that helps to build the forests of tomorrow by financing forestry actions which have a systematically positive impact on the climate, biodiversity and landscapes, deploying its programmes on a regional scale. This has led to the virtuous management of 7,250 hectares of forest , 180,000 trees planted, and 28,000 trees preserved since 2016.
Mirova Foundation has become the main sponsor in scaling up the association’s activities in Bourgogne-France-Comté and Île-de-France. The aim is also to ensure an approach incorporating strong mediation and consultation with other forest ecosystem players.
Pour une Agriculture du Vivant
Launched in 2018, the ‘Pour une Agriculture du Vivant’ movement is a trusted third party for the agricultural and food transition. It draws on the full range of stakeholders via collective action to transform our agricultural models leveraging multiple dimensions: regeneration index, upstream and downstream sector transformation, transition financing, training, networking and accelerating innovation.
Today, the network has more than 1,000 member farms. The Mirova Foundation’s support will enable the ‘Recherche-Action à la Ferme’ field project to set up and test a simple, tailored system of support for farmers to accelerate the emergence of new agro-ecological practices. Support will also contribute to developing the RexAgri tool thanks to the field data collected.
Des Enfants et des Arbres
Des Enfants et des Arbres was founded in 2019 by film director Marie-France Barrier. Every year, the association invites thousands of schoolchildren and college students to plant trees and hedgerows with and on the farms in their region, so that together they can step up as agents of the agro-ecological transition.
A total of 55,000 trees have already been planted so far with the help of 10,300 children and 185 farmers across 50 French ‘départements’. Thanks to the support of Mirova Foundation, the association will be able to scale up the project across all of France, growing from 150 planting sites in 2023 to 250 in 2026.
Sarah El Haïry French Secretary of State for Biodiversity Making the transition in agricultural and forestry practices is one of the keys to developing a more sustainable system that respects people and nature. I welcome the Mirova Foundation’s commitment to the associations that strive on a daily basis to preserve biodiversity and restore degraded ecosystems. These are key objectives of the National Biodiversity Strategy 2030 to halt and then reverse the collapse of living systems. It is by pooling all our energies and joining forces to bring together the State, private parties and non-profit associations that we will achieve this ambitious objective as part of an environmental plan led by the Prime Minister.
Philippe Zaouati Chief Executive Officer of Mirova and Chairman of Mirova Foundation We wholeheartedly believe that impact finance is a powerful lever for accelerating the transition to a sustainable society. However, philanthropy also has a role to play in supporting non-profit organisations and projects that provide solutions of public interest. As an extension of Mirova’s mission, Mirova Foundation supports projects that Mirova is unable to fund as an investor. In total, our endowment fund has already devoted more than €4 million to the non-profit sector since it was created at the end of 2020, and we are very proud to be able to support these latest winners in tackling the challenges of sustainable forests and agro-ecology.
Anne-Claire Roux Executive Director of Mirova Foundation A collective movement involving all members and entities in society is needed to find solutions addressing the collapse of life itself. It is imperative that we take action, which is why we are working alongside associations committed to protecting the living world and the natural resources we need to maintain the conditions for life on our planet. We are proud to support these three commendable associations!