On 30 June 2026, Seneca Impact Advisors and the Japan Impact Investing Network (J-IIN) co-hosted Pathways to Nature Finance: Structuring Capital for Scalable Impact, the 11th session of J-IIN’s Natural Capital Webinar Series. The webinar brought together leaders from finance, conservation, and project development to explore practical approaches to scaling investment into nature, biodiversity, and ecosystem restoration.
The session was convened by Takuro Kimura, Founder and Representative of J-IIN, and moderated by Jean-Marc Champagne, Managing Director of Seneca Impact Advisors. Featured speakers included Tom Holland, Co-Founder and Director of Vana; Will McGoldrick, Regional Managing Director, Asia Pacific, at The Nature Conservancy; and Max Thomas, APAC Head of Sustainable Capital Markets at HSBC. Together, the panel explored how nature finance is evolving from concept to implementation and what is required to mobilize capital at scale for nature-positive projects.
The webinar opened with a presentation by Jean-Marc Champagne, Managing Director of Seneca Impact Advisors, examining one of the sector’s central challenges: not a lack of interest in nature finance, but the difficulty of matching the right type of capital to the right project at the right stage of development. Drawing on Seneca’s experience across Asia, the presentation explored project preparation, blended finance, project aggregation, risk mitigation, insurance solutions, and landscape-based approaches for scaling investment into nature and biodiversity initiatives.
Following the keynote presentation, each panelist provided a brief overview of their organization’s work and perspectives on nature finance. Tom Holland discussed Vana’s experience developing community-based forest restoration and nature-positive projects in Southeast Asia. Will McGoldrick highlighted lessons from The Nature Conservancy’s work across the Asia-Pacific region, while Max Thomas shared a capital markets perspective from HSBC and discussed how financial institutions and investors are approaching nature-related opportunities.
The panel discussion brought together perspectives from conservation, project development, and financial markets. Will McGoldrick shared insights from The Nature Conservancy’s work across the Asia-Pacific region, while Tom Holland presented practical examples of community-based forest restoration and nature-positive project development through Vana’s work in Southeast Asia. Max Thomas offered a capital markets perspective, discussing the role of financial innovation and institutional investors in increasing investment flows toward nature-related opportunities.
Audience engagement was strong throughout the session, with discussions focusing on project investability, landscape-scale finance, biodiversity markets, and the barriers that continue to prevent capital from reaching projects and communities. A recurring theme was that scaling nature finance will require more than simply mobilizing additional capital. It will also require practical business models, appropriate financial structures, effective partnerships, and continued innovation across the investment value chain.
We are pleased to share the presentation portion of the webinar below.
