‘Rhino bond’ charges onto markets to save S African animals

‘Rhino bond’ charges onto markets to save S African animals

Critically endangered black rhinos in South Africa will get help from an unusual source: Wall Street, where institutional investors have expressed a willingness to buy a new type of bond being issued by the World Bank that will pay for successful efforts to save the animals. In this pilot project that will be judged on whether the population of horned animals in two parks in the country increases, the Washington-based development lender will issue a $150 million bond March 31.

Rather than paying annual or semi-annual interest to investors, the proceeds instead will go to the staff in the parks to invest in the battle against poachers, and to improve conditions for the animals. The funds will benefit the Addo Elephant National Park and the Great Fish River Nature Reserve, the World Bank said. Officials hope the bond, two years in the making, will offer a new model to leverage private funds to finance conservation efforts or other projects. The catch is they must have benchmarks that can be objectively measured.

“The Rhino bond is a groundbreaking approach to enabling private sector investment in global public goods-in this case biodiversity conservation, a key global development challenge,” World Bank President David Malpass said