Projects for permanence and prosperity: Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii, BC

This case study highlights Coast Funds as a leading example of Indigenous-led conservation finance in the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii, showing how long-term capital aligned with First Nations’ stewardship and economic development goals helped shift the region away from extractive models toward more sustainable local economies. It explains how an initial $60 million in private funding, matched by provincial and federal governments to create a $120 million conservation finance platform, helped leverage a total of $444 million in investments across sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, forestry, and aquaculture. The report points to strong results, including 144 businesses grown, more than 1,400 jobs created, major carbon credit purchases, and more than 444 habitat restoration and research initiatives. It also draws an important lesson for future place-based finance efforts: funding models should be designed for equity, not just scale, so that all participating Nations can benefit fairly.