Conservation Finance Milestone: Blue Forest Completes Pilot Forest Resilience Bond

1 minute read | December.05.2023

Conservation finance nonprofit Blue Forest has successfully completed its pilot Forest Resilience Bond.

In a conservation finance industry milestone, the Yuba I Forest Resilience Bond returned all investor capital in line with expectations, financing restoration efforts on 15,000 acres in the Tahoe National Forest in California. That restoration reduced the risk of catastrophic wildfire

Orrick represented Blue Forest.

THE COMPANY

Blue Forest is a conservation finance nonprofit focused on forest restoration. Since 2018, Blue Forest has managed investor capital through its flagship financial product, the Forest Resilience Bond, which deploys private capital to finance forest restoration projects on private and public lands to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire.

Blue Forest developed the Yuba I Forest Resilience Bond with the National Forest Foundation, U.S. Forest Service and World Resources Institute.

THE IMPACT

Capital deployed through the Yuba I Forest Resilience Bond will:

Protect water supply in the Yuba watershed.
Reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire.
Avoid carbon emissions that wildfires might otherwise produce.

The restoration was completed in five years, instead of the projected 10 to 12 years.

THE TEAM

The Orrick team advising Blue Forest included Perry Teicher, Neil Golden, Devin Canavan, Elizabeth Damaskos and Rene Kathawala.

LEARN MORE

Blue Forest news release

Related Lawyers

Perry Teicher Impact Finance Counsel, Impact Finance and Investment, Funds

New York

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Practice:

Impact Finance and Investment
Funds
Technology Companies Group
Responsible Business
Mergers & Acquisitions

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Perry Teicher Impact Finance Counsel

New York

Perry represents and advises entrepreneurs, companies, fund sponsors, family offices, tax-exempt organizations, and other asset owners across a wide range of transactions, including corporate legal matters, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private fund formation matters and portfolio transactions, and private placements. Perry advises clients on impact-oriented and ESG matters, integrating social, environmental, and financial outcomes into a comprehensive strategy. Orrick’s Impact Finance & Investment practices serves a global client base across a range of sectors, leveraging Orrick’s unique capabilities to provide innovative, effective, and thoughtful legal services to those clients aiming to create positive social and environmental change alongside targeted financial returns.

Perry serves as co-chair of the NYU Law Grunin Center/Impact Investing Legal Working Group’s annual conference on Legal Issues in Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing and is involved in other sector building initiatives.

Perry served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan, where he supported the development of businesses aiming to create mobility and opportunity for people with disabilities in the region. Perry is an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow and member of the ROI Community and Nexus. A native of the Detroit area and University of Michigan graduate, Perry remains committed to the Detroit area, supporting Detroit expat initiatives.

Neil Golden Senior Counsel, Mergers & Acquisitions, Energy

Washington, D.C.

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D:+1 202 339 8467
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Energy & Infrastructure Sector
Mergers & Acquisitions
Energy
Infrastructure

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Neil Golden Senior Counsel

Washington, D.C.

In recent years, Neil has worked extensively on transactions involving the acquisition and divestiture of both companies and assets, as well as the development and financing of renewable energy projects involving wind, solar, biomass and fuel cells, and on alternative fuels projects in the ethanol industry. He served as lead counsel for the sale of a large distributed solar, fuel cell and residential solar portfolio, named “2019 M&A Deal of the Year” by Power Finance & Risk Magazine. He has also worked extensively on the development and financing of conventional power generation facilities.

His corporate and financing experience has included representation of clients in syndicated bank financings, financings by multilateral and bilateral agencies, Rule 144A debt offerings, sale-leaseback financings, construction loans, formation of joint ventures and partnerships, equity investments, and the purchase and sale of equity interests in projects.

Internationally, Neil has represented sponsors of power projects and electric distribution companies in a number of countries including Brazil, Argentina, Jamaica, Honduras, Bangladesh, Nepal, Colombia, Turkey, the Dominican Republic and the People’s Republic of China.

Devin Canavan Senior Associate, Energy, Infrastructure

Washington, D.C.

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D:+1 202 339 8690
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Energy & Infrastructure Sector
Energy
Infrastructure

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Devin Canavan Senior Associate

Washington, D.C.

His practice focuses on the representation of sponsors, issuers, project developers, lenders, investors and governmental entities in project financings, infrastructure projects in the public-private partnership sector and securities offerings.

Rene Kathawala Pro Bono Counsel

New York

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D:+1 212 506 5100
E: [email protected]

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Rene Kathawala Pro Bono Counsel

New York

Rene works with other pro bono counsel and legal services nonprofits to increase the quantity and quality of pro bono representation that is being provided to indigent clients in each of the cities worldwide where Orrick has a presence. In addition, he supervises and directly works on cases in such diverse areas as immigration law, family and matrimonial law, housing law, public benefits law, employment law counseling, impact litigation and nonprofit advice and counseling. Rene has worked on many substantial matters in the federal and state systems over his career that are reported as precedent. He also works with firm attorneys to strengthen the firm's innovative Impact Finance team that he founded and that provides representation in diverse transactional areas to nonprofit, for profit and hybrid organizations dedicated to providing basic services to poor persons around the world in areas including microfinance, water, education, energy, housing and health.

Based on his long-standing commitment to access to justice issues, Rene has been appointed to serve as co-chair of the New York City Bar Association Race Equity in the New York State Courts Working Group, co-chair of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel Transactional Law Working Group, as member of the New York City Bar Association Right to Counsel Task Force, as member of the New York City Bar Association Family Court Judicial Appointment & Assignment Process Work Group, as member of Sanctuary for Families' Narkis Golin Initiative, and as member of the Kids in Need of Defense's New York Advisory Committee. In recognition of his exemplary work in family law, United States District Judge Bloom appointed Rene as a special master in a federal court family law matter in 2014 in the Eastern District of New York in case number 07-cv-02565-ARR-LB, styled Garmhausen et al v. United States Department of Justice et al. Rene also appeared in a documentary with wide release, called "The Accidental Spy," about his pro bono immigration client, Mr. Blerim Skoro, for whom Rene spent six-years in the New York City immigration court and gained deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture for the client.

Related Areas

Impact Finance and Investment