Allowing companies to damage ecosystems and pay for restoration is unsuitable as a governance mechanism in the current biodiversity crisis, and is highly unlikely to restore genetic and functional biosphere integrity, At the same time, restoring previously degraded ecosystems is expensive and needs to be funded, even beyond the expected life of current polluting organizations. On three project examples, Swiss RE-BD, Swiss Negative Emissions Fund, and Reversing urban sprawl, both a governance and funding mechanism is needed, each with a distinct role.