Wednesday, June 17, 2026
As a partner of the World Living Soils Forum, a flagship event founded by Moët Hennessy and co-organized by ChangeNOW, which brought together over 500 people—agricultural stakeholders, scientists, business leaders, policymakers, NGOs, and start-ups—in Arles, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and New York on June 3 and 4, 2026, Groupe BPCE demonstrated its commitment, combining territorial presence and multiple areas of expertise, including those of Natixis CIB and Mirova, to accelerate the transition towards healthier soils.
Current events daily demonstrate the consequences of climate change and biodiversity erosion on agriculture, a pillar of our food sovereignty, but also on all populations, ecosystems, and our economy.
Because no value chain can be sustainable without healthy ecosystems and living soils, this environmental challenge is also a major economic imperative for competitiveness and resilience for all actors in the value chain and the territories.
The urgency is also perceived by the profession: according to the latest BPCE L’Observatoire agriculture-viticulture survey, while 66% of farmers expect an impact of climate change on their production, a third of them already plan to invest in agroecological practices.
Soil health calls for a collective and ecosystemic approach in line with Groupe BPCE’s territorial cooperative DNA. This is why Groupe BPCE wished to be part of the WLSF dynamic across all its businesses, all mobilized to share expertise, initiate new synergies at territorial, national, and international levels, and co-construct innovative solutions with all stakeholders.
« The rise of the World Living Soils Forum attests to a positive dynamic in which we are involved across all our businesses as bankers, investors, and insurers. All gathered to share expertise and co-construct concrete solutions to support the transition and strengthen the resilience of territories. »
Leïla Phelouzat,
director of societal commitment and sustainable transformation, Groupe BPCE
Two round tables dedicated to water and forest issues allowed Nicolas Prat, Director of the Energy Transition Bank at Banque Populaire du Sud, and Mathieu Weiss, Impact Manager at Caisse d’Epargne CEPAC, to clarify the role of Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne as cooperative and local banks. Highlighting the importance for all regional economic actors to rethink how they assess risks and strengthen their resilience in the face of climate change and biodiversity decline, they emphasized tailor-made support to meet needs, raising awareness among clients through ESG dialogues and offering them concrete, customized solutions. Alongside Esther Crauser Delbourg, water economist, and Sylvestre Coudert, forestry expert, both members of the scientific committee of the Groupe BPCE’s local natural heritage protection initiative, they shared the collective and tangible approach to preserving and restoring local ecosystems related to water and forests, and the projects carried out locally.
Orith Azoulay, Director of the Green and Sustainable Hub at Natixis CIB, emphasized investment tools dedicated to agricultural transition, highlighting the growing importance of assessing nature-related risks, including portfolio-level stress tests, geospatial analysis, and climate risk scorecards, to understand how mitigation measures, investments, and insurance solutions can reduce vulnerabilities.
For Gauthier Quéru, Director of the Natural Capital department at Mirova, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers, supporting agricultural transition requires valuing all services provided by the adoption of regenerative or sustainable practices. Carbon sequestration can be monetized through the generation of carbon credits useful for complementing companies’ decarbonization trajectories, representing valuable financing levers. Beyond carbon, diversifying income for farmers is important. This can involve energy generation (biomethane, agrivoltaics), valorizing residues, or developing diversified crops in rotations.