About Groundd
Groundd is a women-led consultancy specialising in
conservation enterprise, climate finance compliance, and community-led development, working across Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and Asia.
We work at the intersection of three topics that are rarely done together well:
structuring community conservation enterprises that are financially viable,
ensuring nature-based solutions are genuinely built with and for local communities,
and navigating the regulatory frameworks, like the EU Deforestation Regulation, that are reshaping how conservation and trade connect.
We have worked with IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, UNCTAD, the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, and the Gorongosa Restoration Project, across more than 10 countries and 24 projects, consulting over 12,000 local people in the process.​
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We are a senior team with expertise in conservation finance, participatory field methodology, geospatial analysis, supply chain compliance, and impact communications.
Conservation finance only works when the people who protect nature benefit from it. That is the standard we hold our work to.
Community First
Conservation finance only works when communities are owners, not recipients. We design projects around the rights, governance systems, and economic priorities of the people closest to the land.
Investable Outcomes
We translate field reality into the language of donors, investors, and regulators. Our outputs are built to open doors, to carbon markets, climate funds, EUDR compliance, and outcomes-based finance.
Rigour
Every enterprise assessment, compliance review, and community consultation is based on structured data, verified field evidence, and tested methodologies,
including our own CERS framework.
Local Depth
We work with in-country partners, local researchers, and community liaisons, not from a distance. Our knowledge of Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia comes from experience, not borrowed from reports.
Community Enterprises
Rating System - CERS
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The CERS framework is a comprehensive approach designed to assess the viability and sustainability of Community Conservation Enterprises (CCEs). It combines financial, environmental, and social criteria, integrating tools like geospatial analysis and inclusivity metrics, to evaluate projects.
Where Conservation Finance
Meets the 30x30 Commitment
Protecting 30% of the planet's lands and oceans by 2030 requires more than political will, it requires communities with secure tenure, enterprises with viable business models, and capital that knows how to reach them.
That is exactly the gap Groundd works in. Through the CERS framework, we assess and structure community conservation enterprises that generate income for local communities while protecting and restoring the landscapes that 30x30 depends on.
Our work in the Okavango Basin, the Atlantic Forest–Caatinga Corridor, Mozambique's Licuáti Forest, and Angola's Miombo Woodlands directly contributes to the biodiversity conservation, corridor connectivity, and community stewardship that make protected and conserved areas viable over the long term.
30x30 is not achieved by drawing lines on a map. It is achieved when the people living inside those lines have a reason, and the means, to protect them.
