FIRA Issues Mexico’s First Biodiversity Bond Worth Over 1.6 Billion Pesos

Mexico City — FIRA, a second-tier development bank focused on agriculture, has placed 1,657 million pesos in debt on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV), with the proceeds earmarked for projects tied to sustainable development, productivity and environmental conservation.

Marcos Martínez Gavica, chairman of the BMV’s board, called the operation “another milestone for the Mexican Stock Exchange and for the evolution of sustainable financing,” noting that comparable bonds had previously been issued only once in China, twice in Colombia and once in Bolivia.

None of those placements came from a government entity, making FIRA’s the first of its kind and the fifth worldwide, he said during a bell-ringing ceremony marking the listing.

“Today Mexico joins this small group of markets that are developing solutions to one of the great challenges of our time: how to mobilize capital to protect natural resources,” Martínez Gavica said.

FIRA, formally known as Fideicomisos Instituidos en Relación con la Agricultura, will channel the money toward biodiversity conservation and the sustainable management of production systems.

The chairman added that FIRA has completed 194 issuances worth more than 216 billion pesos since 2012. “For the Mexican Stock Exchange, this issuance also has special meaning because of the solid relationship we have built with FIRA,” he said.

What the Bond Will Finance

FIRA director general Alan Elizondo Flores described the biodiversity bond as a key initiative that links Mexico’s institutional savings with the preservation of the country’s natural capital.

He thanked the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry (Sader) for its support, along with the German government through the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and international bodies including the Global Green Bond Initiative (GGBI) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Elizondo said the instrument aims to align producers’ economic incentives with sustainable practices through four pillars:

• Financing for lower-impact activities
• Conditional economic incentives
• Technical assistance for technological change
• Verification of the responsible use of chemical inputs

The bond will back projects in sustainable agriculture, responsible soil management, the reduction of agrochemicals harmful to biodiversity and innovation through precision farming.

Sader Hails a Historic Milestone

Agriculture Secretary Columba Jazmín López Gutiérrez called the issuance a historic milestone for the farming sector, since it is the first instrument of its kind issued by a government entity anywhere in Latin America.

López Gutiérrez said the initiative demonstrates how financial innovation and socio-environmental commitment can be aligned to drive the conservation and recovery of biodiversity. The projects include practices to improve soil health, cut the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and expand agroecology along with organic and regenerative farming.

Under the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, she said, the well-being of the population is inseparable from the care of natural resources and from social justice. She stressed that rural development should no longer be measured only by the tons produced, but by its capacity to protect ecosystems and restore biodiversity.

She congratulated FIRA and the capital markets for coordinating efforts to make green financing more transparent and to build a prosperous, sustainable and sovereign agricultural sector.

Banxico and Hacienda Back the Model

José Luis Negrín, director general of financial system affairs at the Bank of Mexico (Banxico), said the issuance shows that agricultural productivity and competitiveness can be maintained without depleting Mexico’s biological wealth, while offering investors a highly solid financial asset backed by the institution.

Carlos Alberto Reyes, head of the development banking unit at the Finance Ministry (SHCP), said the placement offers a concrete way to reconcile rural productivity and food security with the conservation of natural resources, in line with the National Development Plan and Mexico’s international climate commitments. He reiterated the ministry’s commitment to closer collaboration between development banks and capital markets.