On the occasion of the Committee on Forestry and the World Forest Week organized at FAO headquarters from 18 to 22 July 2016, FAO and the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD joined forces to organize a side-event on “Sustainable Financing for Forest and Landscape Restoration and Land Degradation Neutrality. What innovation needs for effective financing mechanisms and increased private sector investments?”

The side-event was an opportunity to remind how Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) and Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) implementation can deliver significant contributions to climate change adaptation and mitigation and are important milestones on the road towards an inclusive green economy through their potential to create decent jobs and increased incomes for local populations. More importantly the side-event aimed at: (i)Promoting relevant approaches to mobilize private sector finance to implement FLR and LDN; (ii)Fostering dialogue between stakeholders involved in FLR and LDN financing in order to share lessons learned and good practices of effective financing mechanisms; (iii) Identifying gaps and challenges to be addressed in the future and discussing the relevance of increased collaborative approaches to seize synergies between financing opportunities.

The event enabled over 50 participants from around the globe to learn about some of the ongoing innovations and to discuss gaps and challenges for increased private sector investments. Key note presentations were delivered by representatives from the High Commissariat for Water, Forestry and Combating Desertification of Morocco, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD (LDN Fund Project team) and the FAO Climate and Environment Division. Presentations followed by discussions with all participants enabled to draw key messages and orientations for action, among them:

• Corporate Social Responsibility has proven to be a significant driver to mobilize funds for FLR through private companies. For example, in Morocco the Partnership for Moroccan Forests operates as a catalytic platform to facilitate partnerships between the forest administration and responsible companies willing to donate funds to support sustainable forestry projects.
• International cooperation agencies are able to provide significant advisory services to partner countries in building their enabling environment for increased financing, for example through the development of projects eligible for climate finance. A number of opportunities are currently offered by the Green Climate Fund, especially as a way to leverage private sector investments. International organizations like FAO are already ready to provide tailor-made advisory services to developing countries towards GCF readiness, project design and related public private partnerships.
• Innovative non-traditional funding mechanisms are worth exploring. For example, more crowdfunding initiatives which enable a large mobilization of the general public could be designed for FLR and LDN projects. Indeed, crowdfunding is a way to bring small amounts of funds to small projects, which most financing partners are not able to provide, while this can achieve a significant development impact on the field through a citizen-to-citizen approach.
• In order to seize the full potential of forests and mobilize resources at scale, the contributions of forests to biodiversity, combating desertification and climate change mitigation and adaptation must be unleashed. Participants pointed out it is critical to find synergies between Rio conventions when addressing financing mechanisms for FLR and LDN, which is in particular relevant for financing opportunities through GEF.
• Opportunities emerging from the Land Degradation Neutrality Fund (LDNF) project were discussed as well as partnerships need to address the new LDN market. Indeed, the LDNF project offers possibilities of blended finance and a mix of investments and technical assistance which are required when implementing large scale FLR projects.

Final conclusions of the side-event ackowledged progress has been made to find synergies between financing sources and to build relevant financing alliances. Nonetheless more efforts should be developed to design sustainable incentives to private sector investors and project developers to engage in FLR and LDN on the long-term. FAO's FLRM is committed to support further private sector mobilization, including private investors, to implement FLR and LDN.

For more information contact: [email protected]

Ludwig Liagre