The Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism

Financing forest and landscape restoration with the FLRM

Year published: 20/02/2023

As the crises of deforestation and land degradation threaten the well-being, livelihoods and environment of millions of people, forest and landscape restoration (FLR) proves to be a necessary effort for countries all around the globe. However, FLR faces several challenges to reach implementation, with financing being a primary issue. Diverse stakeholder needs, deficient awareness of funding opportunities and a lack of incentives for investment are some examples of financial barriers. To combat these challenges, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism (FLRM) leads several initiatives to educate on and promote opportunities for funding and investment in restoration activities.

The FLRM has launched multiple unique publications on the subject of financing in recent years. In 2021, “Local financing mechanisms for forest and landscape restoration: A review of local-level investment mechanisms” was published to provide strategies and examples of coordinated financing that prioritizes and benefits local communities. In partnership with FAO’s Sustainable Forestry, Value Chain Innovation and Investments team, the FLRM also supported the 2021 publication of “Developing bankable business plans: A learning guide for forest producers and their organizations” as a framework for successfully acquiring investments for small and medium forest enterprises.

An e-learning course inspired by the aforementioned publication is “Developing bankable business plans for sustainable forest-based enterprises”, which will be released shortly. Building on the publication, the interactive course will aim to improve the capacity of small producers, their organizations and small and medium-sized enterprises to access private investment and finance for sustainable forest-based businesses. Already available for learners to utilize is the “Sustainable financing of forest and landscape restoration” e-learning course, of which equips users with tools to analyse financial needs and opportunities in FLR.

Another effort of the FLRM for improving capacity and awareness for FLR financing is the online Community of Practice (CoP) for Local finance for forest and landscape restoration, currently with over 1 000 active members. This CoP enables knowledge and experience-sharing for practitioners to effectively finance restoration projects at the landscape level. Through the CoP for local finance, the FLRM is delivering a series of learning challenges on key finance topics requested by members in collaboration with the Landscape Finance Lab.

Therefore, the FLRM is happy to invite readers to the upcoming third learning challenge, "Private sector engagement and development of bankable business plans", taking place from 28 February to 16 March 2023. The sessions will be hosted live in English with French translation. After the first learning challenge that introduced the integrated landscape approach and valuation of ecosystem services, and the second challenge on targeting climate finance for holistic restoration, this third challenge will dive into the private sector for landscape restoration investments and building bankable business plans.

To partake in this learning challenge with fellow professionals, please register here.

Giorgio Millesimi (FAO) and Madison Ziegler (FAO)