A moonshot coalition of 100 world leaders building the systems to close mission-critical gaps in nature.
OVERVIEW
Closing the Gap is a systems approach to nature protection and a platform to drive action: bring the people with real power to act, understand the gaps that block them, turn that intelligence into deployable solutions, and leave every single person with an individual commitment to act.
We map and recruit the most influential leaders in nature — Indigenous representatives, scientists, enforcement operators, investors, philanthropists and storytellers — selected on their authority to move, not just their title.
Every collaborator is interviewed and surveyed on the hard truths behind each gap. The blockers surface in their own words, before any solution is designed.
Macro research and peer-reviewed literature synthesis map the drivers of each gap — from finance and enforcement to Indigenous rights and narrative — so the coalition shares one evidence base.
We start by understanding the drivers that keep each gap open. Each driver is reframed as a clear problem statement, which becomes the foundation for a moonshot idea. These ideas are then shaped into concrete prototypes with a named owner and a path to deployment. Every participant leaves with a personal commitment to act.
The Four Gaps
$700bn annual biodiversity finance gap
Biodiversity is structurally underfunded and the capital that does exist rarely reaches the people holding the line. Funding cycles are short, reporting burdens are heavy, and frontline organisations spend their scarcest resource — attention — on fundraising instead of protection.
Under 1% of environmental crime is prosecuted
Detection has outpaced response. Illegal mining, land grabs and industrial logging are visible from orbit within days, but the legal and operational chain that turns a detection into a prosecution is slow, fragmented and jurisdictionally stranded.
80% of the world's remaining biodiversity is on Indigenous lands, yet Indigenous peoples make up just 5% of the global population
Indigenous peoples steward the most intact ecosystems on Earth while receiving a fraction of the funding and almost none of the decision-making power. Their knowledge is consulted late, if at all, and rarely holds authority over the programmes that affect their territories.
Biodiversity is under 3% of climate media coverage
Nature loss is reported as an inevitability rather than a set of decisions with names attached. Without a narrative that assigns agency and makes progress legible, public pressure stays diffuse and political will never consolidates.
Source: npj Biodiversity (2025)
CLOSING THE GAP SUMMIT 2026
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
Closing the Gap Summit 2026 at Enea Tree Museum, Zurich.
Honestly the most unique gathering I think I have ever attended. My head is still spinning - in a great way.
Chloe Buiting
Co-Founder & CEO, Global Protagonists
OUTCOMES.
What a complex and rewarding experience to work on designing and deploying an actionable moonshot for nature protection that only that room with that mix of people could have produced.
Oksana Tiedt
CO-FOUNDER & CEO, CLEMENTINE CAPITAL
Filter moonshots by gap
Follow the money that destroys the forest: fuse trade records, OSINT and geolocation into one intelligence graph, then turn it into pressure.
HIRING LEAD ENGINEER
Community-owned endowments: capitalised once, invested, funding local conservation in perpetuity.
Structure being set up
Bottom-up income streams and community-owned businesses so territorial protection pays for itself.
Pilot in design
A matchmaking layer connecting private capital to vetted, place-based nature projects.
Design phase
Grants and self-sustaining finance flowing directly to Indigenous organisations, plus peer-to-peer exchange between them.
Convening confirmed
Close the relationship gap: give key voices, new Indigenous voices and every child real time in nature.
Prototype funded
Intelligence, insights, influence, impact — moving the willing majority from passive agreement to political action.
Prototype in build
Even with so many initiatives underway to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, nothing is quite as powerful as putting great people in a room together. Lawrence and the Capacity Foundation team have mastered this, building meaningful connections and trust in a remarkably short time. The fruits are already ripening.
Rodrigo V Cunha
Organizer & Curator, TEDXAMAZÔNA
Have expertise or resources to support a moonshot? Email hello@capacity.eco with a brief note on which one and why.
Email hello@capacity.ecoThe People
Uniting CEOs of NGOs and nature-tech companies, Managing Directors of family offices, world-leading scientists, Indigenous leaders, philanthropic donors and federal authorities. We forge the missing links between those with the power to move the needle, turning Moonshot Missions for Mother Nature into deployable solutions that close gaps at the urgent pace our planet requires.
Select a discipline to filter the leaders below.
7 leaders · Indigenous
Chief, Maró Indigenous Land
President , Kapyvanaway Association
Executive Director, Indigenous Peoples of Asia Solidarity (IPAS) Fund
Human Rights advisor, Comunidad Indígena de Maurak
President, Instituto Aritana
President, Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance
President, Urihi Association Yanomami
Thank you for bringing us together into this melting pot of creative minds, open hearts and impact ambition.
Stefanie Lang
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LEGACY LANDSCAPES FUND
SPONSORS & PARTNERS
Founding sponsors
Supporting sponsors
Venue partner
Day 1 partner
Email cassandra@capacity.eco with a short blurb explaining who you are and what you can bring to the room.
Email cassandra@capacity.eco