Water funds help to provide fresh water today and into the future.

If petroleum is black gold and refined sugar is white gold, could crystal-clear fresh water be gold’s newest look? Global warming, deforestation, pollution and other environmental pressures are shrinking the planet’s clean water supply, making people look at fresh water as they never have before: as a valuable good that is produced, sold and consumed and deserves our investment.

The Nature Conservancy is revolutionizing this approach by launching water funds across Latin America that pay for watershed protection and reforestation — thereby helping to provide fresh water today and into the future. The Conservancy’s and its partners’ growing portfolio of Water Funds now includes 32 Water Funds initiatives in various stages of development, which provide a steady source of funding for the conservation of more than 7 million acres of watersheds and secure drinking water for nearly 50 million people.

“People are really starting to appreciate water — not just figuratively, but literally,” says Alejandro Calvache, a water funds specialist for the Conservancy. “We’re learning to assess water according to a monetary value for the services it provides.”