Today I was handed a torch. Hank Cauley has carried it since he co-founded Nature For Justice with Frank Hicks in 2020, using it as Chief Executive to ignite support for a fairer, more prosperous future for people and nature.
Hank carried it with real distinction. Today, I have taken it firmly in my own hands, and I am ready to continue the journey.
A great deal of trust has been placed in me by Hank, Frank and the Board to lead the next chapter of Nature For Justice. I do not take that lightly. I intend to honor that trust by fanning the flame and carrying the torch further, shining its light on practical, innovative solutions that we can scale quickly and effectively.
As I begin as Nature For Justice’s new CEO,
I want to put down a marker for what that means to me:
Protecting and restoring nature must reward the people who actually steward it.
For too many farmers, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, caring for land and nature still carries an economic penalty. Those who maintain healthy soils, protect forests, restore ecosystems or conserve biodiversity frequently carry much of the cost and risk – while much of the economic benefit created flows elsewhere. If we want truly transformative solutions for our increasingly risk-exposed world, this needs to change.
The economics of nature stewardship
need to change
Our job at Nature For Justice is to help make regenerative stewardship an economically rational and durable choice for the people who will live with its consequences long after individual projects, investors or funders have moved on.
That means starting differently.
Instead of beginning with an approach and looking for landscapes or communities that can be made to host it, we start with people, land, rights and aspirations. We work alongside farmers, Indigenous Peoples and local communities to build the capabilities, partnerships, enterprises and financing that can support what they want and need to achieve.
And critically, we build project models in which they retain ownership, control and a fair share of the value they create.
Sometimes the mechanism to unlock this value will be philanthropic or aid funding. Sometimes it will be patient or recoverable capital. Sometimes commercial finance will follow – through agriculture, forestry, carbon, tourism or other nature-based enterprises. Often it will require a blend of these things.
But financing instruments are not the end point. The destination we’re aiming for is stronger local economies, greater resilience, healthier landscapes, and people with the agency and economic power to steward the places they call home.
We’ve already begun this work
In the United States, we are working with farmers to strengthen the economics of regenerative agriculture and create new pathways to prosperity, including by addressing land rights constraints. In Canada, we are supporting First Nations to advance Indigenous-led conservation on their own terms and in their own territories. In Africa, we are connecting smallholder land stewards to opportunities for inclusive participation in regenerative local and global supply chains through mechanisms supporting enhanced capacity, rights and ownership.
Across our work, the common thread is increasingly clear: justice means much more than participation. It means agency, ownership and a fair share of the value created.
My job now is to build on this sturdy foundation — and then to push it even further.
I am incredibly fortunate to inherit a passionate and talented team, programs built with farmers, Indigenous leaders and local partners rather than simply for them, and relationships grounded in something that cannot be built quickly: trust.
I will not be carrying the torch alone
Our team, our partners and the communities we work with all carry the Nature For Justice flame. My responsibility as CEO is to make sure we hold it bright and high enough so that together we can illuminate where the barriers are, where the opportunities lie, and which pathways will allow us to achieve the greatest transformative impact now and in the future.
