Antigua Fully Backs “Nature Bank” Proposal to Monetize Forest and Ocean Assets

Image (from left to right): Sergio Fernández de Córdova, Executive Chairman, PVBLIC Foundation; Kerry Bannigan, President of the Board, PVBLIC Foundation; H.E. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, and Dr. Gene Leon, Executive Director of the Nature Bank, PVBLIC Foundation. Photo credit by Simon Luethi.

Antigua and Barbuda has given its full political backing to the proposed Development Bank for Resilient Prosperity (known as the “Nature Bank”) an initiative designed to unlock the financial value of the region’s forests, coastal ecosystems and ocean assets while protecting them for future generations. H.E. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, has emerged as one of the strongest advocates of the idea, following detailed discussions with Dr Hyginus “Gene” Leon, Executive Director of the Nature Bank.

At the heart of the proposal is a simple but powerful premise: the Caribbean’s natural capital, its mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass beds, terrestrial forests and vast exclusive economic zones, is currently undervalued and underutilised in formal financial markets. The Nature Bank seeks to change this by aggregating high-value forest and marine ecosystems from participating states into a common platform, enabling countries to generate high-integrity biodiversity and carbon credits, structure nature-linked financial instruments, and attract long-term, patient capital on much better terms than they can secure individually.

Discussing the initiative on his “Browne and Browne” show, the Prime Minister emphasised that this is not about “selling out” Caribbean resources, but about finally being paid for the environmental services that the region has been providing to the world for free. He noted that countries such as Guyana have already shown what is possible when standing forests are recognised as a valuable asset class and placed under robust monitoring, verification and reporting systems that meet international standards. For Antigua and Barbuda and its neighbours, the Nature Bank offers a way to scale such efforts across the wider Caribbean and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Prime Minister Browne also underscored that the proposal goes beyond traditional climate finance. By building a dedicated financial institution with a strong governance framework, the Nature Bank would help countries reduce debt vulnerabilities, lower their cost of capital, and invest in resilience-building projects in sectors such as renewable energy, food security, coastal protection and blue economy development. Rather than relying solely on grants and fragmented project finance, governments would gain access to an institution mandated to align financial flows with long-term sustainable development and the preservation of natural systems.

For Antigua and Barbuda, which already manages rich marine ecosystems and a strategically located ocean space, this approach could open the door to new revenue streams while deepening environmental stewardship. By pooling risk and opportunity at a regional and, ultimately, global level, the Nature Bank aims to ensure that smaller economies are not left behind in emerging markets for nature-based solutions, biodiversity credits and other innovative financial products linked to conservation outcomes.

Dr Leon, Executive Director of the Nature Bank, has welcomed Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s leadership in championing the initiative as “a decisive step towards turning the Caribbean’s natural wealth into financial strength, while preserving the very ecosystems that sustain us.” He notes that by pooling the forests, mangroves, reefs and wider ocean assets of participating states into a common platform, the region can generate high-integrity biodiversity and carbon credits at a scale that attracts serious investment. In his view, Antigua and Barbuda’s active support signals that this is not a theoretical concept, but a practical, home-grown solution to financing climate resilience and sustainable development for Small Island Developing States.

“At its core, the Nature Bank is about re-designing finance around what truly matters: people, planet and prosperity that endures,” Leon adds.

He explains that the initiative builds on a systems approach to development that moves beyond GDP and recognises natural capital as a real economic asset that can be measured, verified and safely monetised through tools such as tokenised nature credits and nature-linked financial instruments. By creating a transparent, rules-based marketplace for these assets, the Nature Bank aims to lower the cost of capital for climate- and nature-positive investments, reduce debt vulnerabilities and ensure that local communities share in the benefits. Leon is calling on other governments and investors to partner with Antigua and Barbuda and the wider Caribbean in “building a new financial architecture where protecting nature is not a cost of development, but the engine of resilient prosperity.”

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Originally published by Antigua Newsroom, this article is republished on pvblic.org with appropriate credit to the source. This version includes two additional remarks from Dr. Gene Leon, Executive Director of the Nature Bank, PVBLIC Foundation.