In 1984, Thomas Lovejoy—the scientist who coined the term “biodiversity”—introduced debt-for-nature swaps as an elegant way to help cash-strapped developing countries protect forests and other natural resources while reducing their debt. Lovejoy proposed that international conservation organizations purchase debt and then retire it in exchange for the debtor nation’s commitments to mobilize domestic resources (local currency or other assets) for agreed environmental purposes, such as expanding national parks. Instead of relieving individual loans in exchange for specific projects, nature swaps must reduce debt at a scale consequential for a country’s sovereign debt.