Territorial Risk Manual

Through its Green Bridge Facility and with support from the Nature Investment Lab (NIL), the Igarapé Institute developed the Territorial Risk Manual, an innovative tool designed to help entrepreneurs and implementers of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) understand, assess, and address systemic risks in the territories where they operate. The manual combines public data, field evidence, and participatory approaches across five key dimensions: environmental, social, security, economic, and institutional.

Targeted at professionals working in forest restoration, regenerative agriculture, and the bioeconomy, the manual applies a municipal-level approach and includes checklists, data sources, case studies, and practical recommendations to guide planning, due diligence, and project execution. Its goal is to evaluate risks that extend beyond the project site — such as environmental degradation and illegal deforestation, social conflict and rights violations, the presence of criminal networks and violence, as well as economic fragility, lack of infrastructure, and weak or inefficient governance.

Based on interviews and surveys with NIL members, the publication offers practical recommendations for integrating territorial risk analysis throughout the entire project cycle, connecting large-scale trends to operational decision-making. It also shows how systemic challenges in the territories where NbS projects operate can jeopardize long-term results and sustainability, while warning that poorly designed initiatives may further exacerbate local vulnerabilities.

Ahead of COP30 in Brazil, the manual invites investors and entrepreneurs to lead by example, implementing high-integrity projects with positive territorial impacts. It also reinforces the importance of strengthening land governance and national data systems, while encouraging the creation of green business clusters to expand the scale and resilience of Nature-based Solutions.

 

Learn more about this topic in the Transforming the Economy in the Amazon and the Strategic Paper 64, Dynamics of the Ecosystem of Environmental Crimes in the Brazilian Legal Amazon

 

Read the publication