In retrospect, it seems like a simple plan: Reduce a country’s foreign debt in exchange for nature conservation. 

But in 1987, the “debt-for-nature” swap was a radical and untested idea. And Conservation International, the organization trying to be the first to do it, was similarly untested — having been founded earlier that year. At the time, nature conservation itself still revolved around wildlife. “Climate change” was a fringe term, and the notion of protecting nature for people’s sake had yet to fully take root.

Yet Conservation International pulled off the deal, buying US$ 650,000 of Bolivia’s debt — at a steeply discounted price — in exchange for the government’s promise to establish protected areas in its Amazonian hinterlands.

source: By Mary Kate McCoy
Conservation News
https://www.conservation.org/blog/how-one-south-american-country-became-a-lab-for-conservation