“The Livelihoods boat is ready to sail now! ” by Bernard Giraud, President of the Livelihoods Venture

B.Giraud in the mangroves

December 2011 has been a very busy and fruitful time for Livelihoods:

• The Carbon Fund has been officially registered as a SICAV-SIF in Luxemburg,
• The first closing of the Fund has been completed with 21m€ capital from 4 investors (Danone, Credit Agricole, Schneider Electric, CDC Climat),
• Five major investments initiated by Danone since 2009 have been transferred to the Fund. They represent a potential of 5mT CO2 and very significant social and environmental benefits for rural communities in India, Indonesia, RD of Congo, Senegal.
• The Board of Directors of the Fund held its first official meeting on 16th December. The Board is composed with Herve Allegre, Investment Director CDC Climat, Emmanuel Babeau, CFO Schneider Electric, Myriam Cohen-Welgryn, VP Nature Danone, Bernard Giraud President Livelihoods Venture, Stanislas Pottier, VP Sustainable Development Credit Agricole SA. The Board elected Pierre-Andre Terisse, CFO Danone as Chairman of the Board and validated the nomination of the Investment Committee
• Livelihoods Venture the Fund Advisor, in charge of pre-selecting and monitoring the projects, is now fully operational. Its permanent team is in place : Bernard Giraud, President, Jean-Pierre Rennaud, COO, Guillaume Bouculat, CFO.
• The Livelihoods Network has started its activities. A Web Platform is now in place to co-build solutions between field practitioners, experts, scientists…

The Livelihoods boat is ready to sail now!  2012 will be the first year of navigation with exciting goals:

• First, increase the Fund’s capacity: invite other responsible companies, “patient investors”, family funds, financial institutions, etc, to join the Fund, to bring additional resources and competencies to the projects.
• Continue to build and monitor a robust and impactful project portfolio with a special focus on access to sustainable energy for rural communities
• Set-up the foundations of a powerful Livelihoods Network, a new approach to capacity building, innovation and advocacy based on practitioners needs and experience.

But we should never forget the endgame, the reasons why Livelihoods has been created. The Fund, the Network, etc, are important but they are just means and tools.  Last week, I was visiting our Sunderbans project in India, led by News, a wonderful partner organization from West Bengal in India.

The project is about replanting huge areas of mangroves to protect the villages against the hurricanes which destroy the fragile earth dams and generate food and income through biodiversity enhancement (fish, crabs, plants, honey, etc). In two years only, in this remote and very poor area of Gangus Delta, women groups have planted 3000 hectares of mangrove already.

They have collected millions of seeds from the river, organized and managed nurseries, planted an amazing number of saplings in the mud of the shore. I had discussions with many of them in villages: their pride, motivation and will to continue build this “bioshield” was clearly expressed. As well as their desire to go beyond plantation, generate new activities and sustainable resources.

We are just at a beginning of a long adventure to connect climate change, preservation of natural resources and livelihoods of rural communities. This is a promising but difficult one. A key success factor is community engagement: doing “with” and “through”, not “for” communities.

I cannot end without present to all and each of you together with the entire Livelihoods team, my best wishes for 2012. May this new year be the one of professional and personal fulfillment, success and cooperation for a better future for our planet!

By Bernard Giraud, President Livelihoods Venture 

Find more on livelihoods.eu