Beneficial Returns
Supporting loans to social enterprises serving indigenous communities
By partnering with this investment fund that support social enterprises, the Trafigura Foundation is combating poverty and boosting climate resilience as well as protecting biodiversity-rich ecosystems.
The challenge
Indigenous people steward much the world’s remaining biodiversity, including in forest ecosystems that are vital sinks for greenhouse gases. However, indigenous people are at the same time disproportionally affected by economic isolation and exploitation, undermining their capacity to manage their lands sustainably and adapt to the changing climate.
The solution
Beneficial Returns is an impact investing firm that specialises in providing capital to social enterprises that address poverty and protect the environment in emerging markets in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
With support from philanthropic investors, the firm’s Reciprocity Fund provides loans on favourable terms that enable social enterprises to grow their businesses, generate sustainable livelihoods and boost community resilience.
By supporting development in areas including agriculture, forest products, handicrafts and tourism, social enterprises offer alternatives to short-term extractive practices, thus helping to preserve nature and indigenous cultures in the communities they serve.
Partnership impact
Long-term grant support from the Trafigura Foundation will enable Beneficial Returns to extend loans from The Reciprocity Fund to more social enterprises that would otherwise not receive financing, and to expand its reach in Southeast Asia.
Since it was established in 2019, the Reciprocity Fund has:
- Made loans totalling about USD 3.5 million
- Supported 51 enterprises in 10 countries
- In 2024 alone, supported the livelihoods of about 46,735 people (farmers, collectors and artisans) and the sustainable management of 99,224 hectares of land and forest
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