Our mission is to regenerate 50,000 hectares of degraded land across Portugal by 2035
Hello, and welcome.
At Bioma we are building an ambitious portfolio of reforestation and afforestation projects across Portugal that restore landscapes, help plants and animals thrive, and revive the country’s rural economies.
We harness the global markets for nature-based carbon and other innovative financing mechanisms to make long-term restoration possible.
But our drive goes beyond business. As both founders and parents, we share a deep concern for life on Earth, planetary health, and the responsibility to create a brighter future for our — and everyone’s — children.
What we do
Bioma is an end-to-end developer: the focal point for identifying, designing, and implementing high-integrity, science-driven projects. What makes us different is a seriously long-term vision, along with our commitment to systemic change.
We take care of five things:
Bringing together custodians of landscapes, scientists, investors, and buyers who are aligned with our mission.
Creating mosaics of both natural and productive managed landscapes that maximise economic benefits and align incentives for protecting them in perpetuity.
Making sure that revenue is shared fairly and transparently with the people who manage the landscapes.
Deploying nature-based solutions that promote faster and stronger growth of native species, and approaches that help manage the risks – particularly fire.
Nurturing people’s connection with the natural world, to restore landscapes and our place within them.
We work to meet the highest standards for environmental integrity, transparency, and impact, combining science, commercial understanding, and the wisdom of our human and nonhuman collaborators.
Talk to us to find out more.
Why Portugal
We choose to focus on our home country, Portugal, because this is how we will have the biggest impact. By creating projects with high geographical concentration, their combined effect is greater, we build up data and acumen faster, and we inspire others to do similar work.
Portugal also enjoys favourable conditions for our re- and afforestation projects: secure land rights, political stability, and EU incentives for nature restoration. It also has recently joined a growing number of European countries in creating a national voluntary carbon market.
At the same time, we know the challenge is significant. Portugal has experienced a huge loss of tree cover and landscape degradation in recent decades. It has also faced a significant rural exodus since the 1960s and 70s – more acute than in many other European countries. Its countryside is increasingly marked by monoculture plantations and invasive species. It is vulnerable to desertification, wildfires, and extreme weather events.
But we believe the risks of not acting to meet these challenges are almost unthinkable. On the other hand, the prospect of harnessing nature-based solutions at scale and reversing a pattern of degradation is truly exciting.
Together they serve as our call to action.
Our founding team
Hugo Warner, CEO
Hugo Warner focuses on building circular and regenerative economies. He brings over two decades leading the design, delivery, and measurement of complex and innovative multimillion dollar global programmes, including over 15 years with PwC and Strategy&. He is a leading specialist at Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, a board member of Urbem, a Miyawaki afforestation initiative in Lisbon, and president of the board of directors of the Congo-focused Salonga Conservation Initiative.
Cristina Silva Bastos, Public Affairs and Community Engagement Lead
Cristina Silva Bastos has 20 years of experience in communications, with a focus on social impact and corporate sustainability strategies, spanning tech start-ups to organisations such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Unilever UK, and Galp Energia corporation. She co-founded EarthWise Alliance, a community that empowers companies to embrace sustainability and regenerative practices.
Sónia Soares, Project Manager
Sónia Soares has nearly two decades of experience in ecology and conservation studies in Portugal and Brazil. She is a science teacher and environmental educator. She is also the founder of Nativawaky, an afforestation and ecosystem regeneration consultancy inspired by the Miyawaki methodology, and a founding member of the Portuguese Miniforests Network.
Our advisory group
Bioma’s advisory group brings together the technical and commercial expertise that guides us on our journey.
Francisco Castro Rego, PhD, Wildfire Advisor
Francisco Castro Rego is a retired Professor at the University of Lisbon (ISA/ULisboa), and a senior researcher in fire ecology with a PhD in Forestry and Wildlife and Range Management from Idaho University. For over 20 years, he was Scientific Coordinator at the Centre for Applied Ecology "Prof. Baeta Neves". He has been an advisor at the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture, director of Portugal’s Forest National Services, and President of the Fire Observatory of the Portuguese Parliament. He has held various directorships in national and international organisations such as the European Forest Institute.
Ian Choo, Project Development Advisor
Ian Choo is Principal at Twixis Ventures, and co-founder of Blue Carbon Gold, a token backed by carbon credits from mangrove restoration. He is a pioneer in the Regenerative Finance movement. Ian founded Ekofolio in 2017, a blockchain-enabled fintech company that invested in forests and natural-based assets, which was acquired in 2022.
Greg Goldsmith, PhD, Senior Technical Advisor
Greg Goldsmith, PhD is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Associate Dean for Research and Development at Chapman University in California, USA. He brings more than 20 years of experience as a forest ecologist leading projects in North America, Europe, and Central and South America. He is an internationally recognised expert in forest carbon cycling, hydrology, and biodiversity.
Leónia Nunes, PhD, Forestry Advisor
Leónia Nunes, PhD is a Forest Engineer, with a PhD in Forest Sciences. She is a researcher at the Centre for Applied Ecology “Prof. Baeta Neves” at the Institute of Agronomy in Lisbon, where she studies and researches forest spatial structures, models the growth of ecosystems, and analyses national forest inventories. Recently, she has been collaborating with municipalities in the estimation of urban forest environmental benefits. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Forest Stewardship Council Portugal and Vice President of the Portuguese Society of Forest Sciences.
Talk to us
Whether you are an investor, landowner, or just curious to know more, we would love to hear from you as we advance our mission. Please use this form to ask your questions or share your thoughts, or connect with us on LinkedIn.
