Gerana Dialogue: Reflection on Making Money Work for Landscapes

Yuval Noah Harari describes money as one of humanity's most enduring shared stories.

If money is a story, what story do landscapes need next?

A few weeks ago, around 70 people from business, agriculture, finance, philanthropy and NGOs joined us for the first Gerana Dialogue: Making Money Work for Landscapes.

Building on Gerana's Market Opportunity Scoping, we explored money through other parts of a transition system, including time horizons, trust, governance, resilience and knowledge.

Perhaps not surprisingly, we discovered that money is only one part of the system. Lasting change depends on the quality of the relationships, institutions and shared purpose that surround it.

We've brought together a short Reflection capturing some of the ideas, questions and provocations from the Dialogue, together with James Vaccaro's accompanying essay on relationship-ready finance.

Because good dialogue doesn't end when the meeting finishes, we're delighted to welcome Aimee Refaat as our first Guest Perspective in the Gerana Commons, opening the conversation with this question:

“Where have you seen finance that enables a different kind of governance - one where money functions as a tool in service of the landscape and the people who steward it, rather than as the party setting the terms"

If you have an example, question or reflection, we'd love you to join the conversation over in the Gerana Commons Community Circle.

The Dialogue Reflection is available below.