Bridging science, finance, and restoration: Insights from the sustainable beef investment roundtable

Rome, 2–4 October 2025 — The Sustainable Beef Investment Roundtable brought together over 50 participants representing investors, producers, researchers, NGOs, and policymakers from across Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. Convened under the STELARR Project (Sustainable Investments for Large-Scale Rangeland Restoration) funded by the Global Environment Facility, with technical support from the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) the event marked a turning point in efforts to connect science, finance, and field realities around sustainable beef.

Investing in nature-positive beef systems
The central message of the Roundtable was clear: sustainable beef is not just ethical—it is economically smart. Participants agreed that restoring grasslands and improving livestock productivity can generate measurable environmental and financial returns, strengthening resilience across landscapes.

Five thematic panels unpacked the pathways to make this vision investable: from multifunctional landscapes and science-based monitoring to incentives, finance, and partnerships that can scale up restoration-based beef systems. The conversation highlighted the momentum built by STELARR’s portfolio of 15 investment cases, ranging from Latin American beef enterprises to African rangeland partnerships and European cooperative work. These cases represent three archetypes of transformation:

1. Production-led regeneration – enterprises that combine profitability, productivity, and ecosystem gains.
2. Nature-based restoration – investments that monetize carbon and biodiversity outcomes.
3. Market and cultural innovation – social enterprises creating consumer value through traceability and storytelling.

The portfolio showcased during the Roundtable illustrated this diversity in practice—from Hacienda San José (Colombia) advancing short-cycle genetics and silvopastoral restoration, and Ol Pejeta Conservancy (Kenya) integrating cattle with wildlife and communities, to E-Livestock Global using blockchain traceability to link smallholders to markets. In Latin America, the Uruguayan Grassland Alliance, showcased how family ranchers are safeguarding biodiversity and livelihoods across 180,000 hectares. In Mexico, Rancho El Ojo builds academic–producer partnerships for grassland education, while in Europe, COVAP (Spain) and Liivimaa Lihaveis (Estonia) demonstrated cooperative and brand-driven regeneration models. In Australia, Australian Agricultural Company – AACo presented science-based soil-carbon monitoring at landscape scale. Together, these cases illustrate how sustainable beef can become a driver of restoration—demonstrating the potential of livestock systems to regenerate ecosystems while attracting growing investor interest when the right financial instruments and enabling conditions are in place.
Rethinking risk and reputational barriers

A key takeaway from Marcela Paranhos (SAIL Investments) was that reputational bias remains one of the greatest barriers to livestock investment. Large-scale institutional investors, she explained, often avoid the sector due to perceptions of high environmental risk—even when data show progress in transparency and emissions reduction.

Paranhos cited the case of Marfrig, where over 78% of indirect suppliers are now traceable and monitored, yet one misleading media story overshadowed this progress. She urged science-based organizations such as International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and CGIAR to help the sector produce credible, fact-based communication materials that separate perception from reality.

Her reflections aligned with broader discussions during the event: investors need simple, reliable metrics—for carbon, biodiversity, and social impact—to distinguish real risks from reputational noise. Standardized frameworks like CIAT’s emission-measurement methodology and the GANSO Sustainable Livestock Standard were recognized as key tools for building trust with financial institutions.

Innovative finance and partnership models
The Roundtable’s final panel brought together three leading financial actors—IFC, SAIL Investments, and Rabobank—to discuss how capital can be aligned with environmental outcomes.

· Olivia Elliot (IFC) showcased a US $4.1 billion agribusiness portfolio, emphasizing performance standards that link biodiversity and animal welfare with financial returns.
· Marcela Paranhos presented the &Green Fund’s deforestation-free investments in Brazil and Colombia, covering over three million hectares and 68,000 livelihoods.
· Gert van der Bijl (Rabobank) introduced the Responsible Commodities Facility and Renova Pasto programs, which blend public and private capital to finance zero-deforestation soy and pasture restoration in Brazil.

These examples demonstrated that finance for sustainable beef is evolving from risk management to value creation, embedding sustainability into loan covenants and biodiversity-linked indicators such as soil nitrogen balance and permanent grassland cover.

From dialogue to action
Throughout the event, participants emphasized the need to “reframe the business case”—to show that sustainability drives profitability, not the other way around. Discussions during the breakout sessions generated practical recommendations:
· Improve metrics for finance, linking ecological indicators to returns on investment.
· Strengthen connections with private finance beyond traditional banking—including impact funds, green bonds, and blended finance facilities.
· Empower producers to tell their stories and communicate results through simple, transparent balance sheets.

The Roundtable also identified opportunities to expand science-policy collaboration, particularly through Monitoring, Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) frameworks such as GLEAM-i and nature-positive metrics that can de-risk investments and provide credibility.

Field insights and shared learning
The field visit to La Argentina organic beef farm near Rome provided a living example of regenerative practices in Mediterranean systems. Under the guidance of agronomist Mariana Donnola, participants observed Pastoreo Racional Voisin (PRV) grazing management that improves soil health and feed efficiency while maintaining profitability through short supply chains and on-farm processing.
This visit reinforced a core message: sustainability must work on the ground, for both people and ecosystems.

Collaboration, trust, and a call to action
The Roundtable concluded with a shared call to action: to connect better science, stronger finance, and fairer narratives. Building trust requires more than data—it requires communication, transparency, and genuine partnerships among producers, investors, and policymakers.

With 100 % of participants rating the event as useful, the Roundtable succeeded in deepening understanding, forging new alliances, and charting the next phase of STELARR’s mission—to make sustainable beef investment a driver of restoration, inclusion, and resilience across the world’s rangelands and grasslands.

Acknowledgements

The event was made possible thanks to the partnership and continued support of the GRSB, which played a key role in connecting global networks, sharing knowledge, and reinforcing the sector’s collective commitment to sustainable beef production.

We sincerely thank all those who participated and contributed to the Sustainable Beef Investment Roundtable for sharing their ideas, experiences, and insights toward building a more sustainable and resilient global beef sector.

Special thanks to: Charles Crofton-Atkins / Allied Peak Limited, Fabio Schuler Medeiros / The Nature Conservancy, Jacobo Arango / Alliance Bioversity and CIAT, Anne Gillespie / Rangeland Stewardship Council, Chloe Stull-Lane / Gatsby Foundation, Jhon Freddy Gutiérrez Solis / GANSO, Andrea Bertaglio / Carni Sostenibili – European Livestock Voice, Gert van der Bijl / Rabobank, Gabriel Jaramillo Sanint/ Agropecuaria Bambusa SAS, Max Ticharwa Makuvise / E-Livestock Global Inc., Seth J. Itzkan / Soil4Climate Inc., Oscar Blumetto / INIA, Pedro David Fernández / Terratio – Humboldt University Berlin, Lloyd Clifford Day / IICA, Lauren Svejcar / IYRP Global Alliance, Ken Kimani / Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Fernando Bellese de Cesaro / WWF US, Gerardo Evia / Vaquería del Este, Josefina María Eisele / Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Adriano Alves da Silva / Papalotla Grupo, Jorge Bildo Saravia Fuentes / Rancho el Ojo – Internacional Ganadera Exports, Nancy Labbe / The Nature Conservancy, Julián Chará / CIPAV, Marcela Paranhos / SAIL Investments, Lennart Hientz / CGIAR-ILRI, Ana Doralina Alves / Mesa Brasileira de Pecuária Sustentável, Daniela Schmidt Schossler / Aves Uruguay – Alianza del Pastizal, Johnnie Balfour / Pasture For Life, Scobie Mackay / Imperative, Julie M.K. Ojango / ILRI, Naomi Wilson / Australian Agricultural Company, Ruaraidh Petre / Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju / Boston Consulting Group, Abdrahmane Wane / ILRI, Rafaela Herrera García / COVAP, John Tauzel / Environmental Defense Fund, Airi Külvet / Liivimaa Lihaveis, Peter Doyle / Teagasc, Noemí Bustillo Martínez / El Capricho, Olivia Elliot / International Finance Corporation, Emma Marsden / Nature Positive Initiative, Ann Mottet / IFAD, Sid Embree / Jaguar Corridor Investment Fund, Francesca Fina / Ohana Public Affairs, Helen Crowley/Independent Consultant, Carolina Lizarralde, Jemima Moeng/South African Embassy in Rome, Lennart Hientz/ILRI, Lorenzo Fattibene/Ernst & Young, Daniel Bonecchi/AL-INVEST Verde, Andrea Damiani/AL-INVEST Verde and Debbie Cheung/Allied Peak Limited.

Their participation made this Roundtable a space for genuine dialogue and global collaboration to accelerate sustainable beef systems for people, nature, and climate.

Funded by the Global Environment Facility, STELARR is being implemented by IUCN and executed by ILRI in partnership with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, International Center for Agricultural Research for Dry Areas (ICARDA), Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry Centre Forestry Research (CIFOR-ICRAF), the Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Sustainable Fibre Alliance. Additional research support is provided by the CGIAR Science Program on Multifunctional Landscapes. ILRI thanks all its donors including those that contribute to the CGIAR Trust Fund.

Authors: Sara Valencia and Fiona Flintan