Forest Resilience Bond

The Forest Resilience Bonds, created by Blue Forest Conservation, allow Blue Forest Conservation and its partners, the World Resources Institute and the U.S. Forest Service, to attract additional capital from public and private investors to initiate restoration at a much faster pace and scale.

As a key downstream beneficiary, Yuba Water Agency supported the first piloted Forest Resilience Bond with a $1.5 million cost-share contribution to help fund the Yuba Project. The investment helped leverage an additional $4 million in capital to advance forest management work. Yuba Water’s contributions pay for interest accrued from the private investors, securing the private financing and allowing the project partners to leverage this funding for additional state and federal grants that do not allow for interest payments on loans to be included in grant budgets. The Yuba Project is already underway and is expected to be complete six years earlier than it would have been if not for this trailblazing partnership.

Building on the success of the Yuba Project, Yuba Water committed to a second, $6 million Forest Resilience Bond – Yuba II – in early 2021, which leverages $25 million in total funding and will be used to complete priority work on 16,800 acres in the North Yuba Forest Partnership area. The private capital and commitment from Yuba Water will also be used to leverage additional state and federal grants.

These videos explain how the Forest Resilience Bond works: