New Market Opportunity Scoping - out now

“Emerging research from the Gerana Initiative reinforces something we are seeing increasingly across our landscapes - that the health of river basins, soils and ecosystems is directly linked to long-term business resilience.

For Sappi, supporting initiatives like this is important because they help build practical collaboration on the ground, and efforts such as the Landscape Discovery Lab in the uMkhomazi River Basin contribute to strengthening landscape stewardship and building sustainable supply systems.”

Graeme Wild
CEO, Sappi Southern Africa

What would it take for businesses to act collectively in the landscapes they depend on?

At Gerana, this is the shift we set out to explore.

Through our Market Opportunity Scoping (MOS) research - including a Summary, Discussion Paper and four topic Briefings - we examine how companies are responding to landscape-level risk, as climate disruption intensifies and supply resilience is increasingly shaped by water, soils and ecosystems.

With support from Sappi, the MOS reflects a growing recognition that business resilience is tied to the health of landscapes.

Drawing on interviews with 41 senior leaders across 34 global companies, alongside landscape practitioners, the research highlights both a shift in perspective - and a gap between ambition and coordinated action.

The MOS identifies six systemic tensions: time horizons, trust, framing, governance, capital and knowledge - reframing these as hypotheses (and levers for action): practical areas where alignment can evolve to support collective action across companies, sectors and landscapes.

The Big Picture: From insight to impact

Alongside the MOS, we’ve developed a feature-length article that connects insight to action - bridging research with real-world practice.

Business resilience is no longer held within supply chains alone - it is shaped in landscapes.

Climate disruption, water risk and ecosystem decline are already affecting production systems. The question now is how to respond - together - to build long-term resilience in the places companies depend on.

But recognising this is only the first step.

The next is learning how to act together, in real landscapes.

Through our Discovery Labs, these insights are now being explored in practice - connecting companies, communities and finance around shared action, data and long-term resilience.

• From forest plantation landscapes in South Africa, where wetlands and biodiversity underpin water systems and long-term productivity
• To smallholder farming systems in northern Tanzania, where cotton fields sit alongside food and oilseed crops, and reach out to the wildlife corridors of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro
• To mosaic landscapes in central Benin, where agriculture, shea parklands, sacred forests and wetlands sustain both biodiversity and livelihoods

Explore the MOS Summary & Insights (attached) 

Join the Gerana Community circle to access the full MOS series and The Big Picture: From insight to action

Watch the MOS intro video (50 seconds)