For farmers like Teia Fava, finance can play a significant role in the ability to expand commodity production in a forest-positive way.
“Every rural producer wants to broaden their production and increase the yield per hectare, and of course, there are more efficient and nature-positive models to do so.” Said Fava, who works as a businesswoman and producer on a farm in the Mato Grosso province of Brazil. However, she identifies challenges faced by producers seeking to shift production models to be nature-positive, “but it requires funding and infrastructure change.”
Fava’s firsthand experience illustrates the paradox of current commodity production models; humans depend on the wide range of ecological services that forests provide, yet they are destroying forests to grow food. Agriculture is the leading driver of global deforestation, and an increasing demand for food and agricultural products, especially animal proteins, is expected to drive deforestation in the coming