NbS Triple Win Toolkit: Economics and Finance 86 Enabling environment for private sector investments in NbS Given the wide range of societal, biodiversity or climate changerelated benefits that NbS may provide, there should be sufficient collective and common benefits achievable without the involvementof private sector financing. However, if the private sector is to invest in NbS, the environment in which it is operating needs to be sufficiently facilitative to produce monetisable and financial benefits, among other conditions. For this to be the case, much of the reviewed evidence stressesthat a favourable policy and regulatory system is imperative.Private investments in the type of projects and geographic areasof an NbS must be allowed or stimulated legally – and need to be recognised officially by governments as a viable option to contributeto conservation, sustainable development and climate targets. Furthermore, the enabling actors need to be available and able to fulfil their designated roles during the NbS project. The most prominent actors mentioned in the reviewed evidence typically include: Local governments and NGOs, capable of supporting the projectwith capital and technical assistance in the planning phase, Financial institutions (e.g. banks, or pension funds) to makelong-term capital investments, and Local project developers and communities, which are in continuous collaboration throughout the whole project. Finally, contributing towards an NbS project will only garner interest if there truly exists ecological potential from which the benefits can be unlocked by implementing and scaling a particular NbS. If private financing is to support this scaling, monetisable benefits of the NbS must be able to generate a positive financial return (i.e., profit), anda clear vehicle must exist into which investments can be transferred and from which debt can be repaid by the investee127. Barriers preventing private sector investments in NbS Institutional awareness gap An overarching barrier to attract investments to NbS is the lack of understanding within the public and private sector that natural assets underpin their own performance and outcomes, as well as the broader economy in which they operate. This includes possible misperceptions of risks of biodiversity loss, dependencies on nature, financial and economic benefits obtained from ecosystems, and financial risks of investing in NbS. For example, this is reflected in government or private sector decisions that do not incorporate the fact that biodiversity loss and climate change can negatively affect (i.e., pose a risk to) long term investment outcomes or benefits to local or national economies. The lacking awareness of how much public and private investments depend on nature can drive investments in projects that are implemented at the expense of biodiversity and the natural environment, rather than NbS. This institutional awareness gap can drive the lack of incentivising regulations, limited political support and scarce private sector involvement, among other barriers to private financing of NbSthat are listed in subsequent sections.