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ArticleMaking local forest-based businesses bankable
XV World Forestry Congress, 2-6 May 2022
2022Also available in:
No results found.Investments in sustainable forest management and forest-based value chains have major climate and development benefits. These investments are critical to drive a transition towards a greener, healthier and more resilient future, and achieve the SDGs. Public resources alone are not enough to achieve these goals and now, more than ever before, it is essential to leverage private capital. Dialogues between local forest producers and private investors have clarified the constraints that developing countries face in mobilizing private investments. A key constraint is the limited pipeline of project proposals that meet minimum investment criteria, provide sufficient detail, and/or have clearly assessed risks and ways to manage them. A consistent recommendation from such dialogues is that small and medium forest producers need improved skills to properly value their assets, position and integrate into value chains, scale up their operations, and develop sound business plans. FAO and partners have taken on the challenge to promote inclusiveness and sustainability in forest value chains and finance. In this paper we summarize the content of a 10-module learning guide to help producers develop bankable business plans. We then discuss some lessons learned from supporting local forest producers in Kenya and Uganda in the application of the guide. Among these lessons are aspects of business planning that are especially important to support forest and landscape restoration. We then offer recommendations on what development actors can do to scale up the development of bankable business plans in the forest sector. Keywords: forest-based businesses; sustainable forest management; private investments; business development; bankability. ID: 3486959 -
Book (stand-alone)Forest business incubation
Towards sustainable forest and farm producer organisation (FFPO) businesses that ensure climate resilient landscapes
2018Also available in:
No results found.Forest business incubation is a support process that accelerates the successful development of sustainable businesses in forest landscapes. There is much to develop. The aggregate gross annual value from smallholder producers within forest landscapes may be as much as US$1.3 trillion. Forest business incubation should be a key mechanism to implement the Paris Agreement on climate and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It can strengthen economic inclusion of forest and farm producer organisation (FFPO) businesses, increase rural incomes to reduce poverty, diversify those incomes to improve climate resilience, and incentivise forest restoration and sustainable management to mitigate climate change. It can also help improve product availability for established businesses and customers, pool lower-risk investment opportunities for financiers, and help inform policymakers on how best to deliver a win-win-win for the economy, society and the environment. It is that important! Business incubation practice generally has expanded rapidly in recent years. Since the first recorded business incubator was founded in 1959, establishment has risen sharply to more than 7,000 today – primarily in urban centres. They are variably financed through client fees, other business income, public and private grants, and loans. Over time the concept has evolved from primarily one of shared space (first generation) to shared space and mentoring (second generation) to shared space, mentoring and networking (third generation). Business incubators respond to needs that especially occur in newer business such as the lack of premises, facilities, market information, technological knowledge, business-management experience, procedures, finance and legitimacy. Remote forest landscapes present challenges for business incubation. Beyond exacerbating basic business support needs, such landscapes offer low densities of educated entrepreneurs, high logistical costs, scarce infrastructure to differentiate products, and few capable business mentors. These challenges may explain the limited penetration of business incubation thinking into forest landscapes. Forest landscapes also require a different type of service delivery model, because shared space is not often practical, requiring much more attention to on-site client visits, virtual services and field exchanges. The content of this book seeks to show how such challenges can be overcome. Chapter 1 begins by defining and introducing ‘business incubation’ and explaining why forest business incubation might be so important. It also specifies why forest business incubation is so challengingly different from models of urban business incubation. In the subsequent Chapters 2–12, detailed case studies are presented of attempts to deliver business incubation services in forest landscapes. Each case study introduces the incubator and its context, describes its institutional design, details the services it offers, outlines how the incubator-client engagement process is managed, comments on how impact is measured, and concludes with some thoughts and tips on best practice. -
BookletGuidance note RuralInvest
FAO Investment Centre
2023This guidance note describes the requirements to implement RuralInvest for business plan development and finance. Irrespective of the finance source and the context for the deployment, a long-term vision is always recommended. This document will guide you through the first steps in the design of RuralInvest support. RuralInvest is a free toolkit designed to support field technicians in their work with entrepreneurs by allowing the systematization and development of bankable and sustainable business proposals. The toolkit comprises user-friendly software, an e-learning course, tailored face-to-face training, user manuals, and a worldwide community of users. Through a participatory and bottom-up approach, RuralInvest methodology brings together local communities, rural entrepreneurs, government field technicians, project staff, and financing institutions to identify, prepare, evaluate and finance small-and medium-size sustainable rural investment projects.
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