EXPLORE INTERACTIVE REPORT

Highlights

The post Peatlands: The climate solution we champion! appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

Step into the world of blended finance, where public, private, and philanthropic funds unite to drive nature-based solutions forward. The Global, Green Fund of Funds Strategy, supported by the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance and powered by BlueOrchard, is leading the way.

This unique model brings together diverse sources of capital, making projects appealing to investors passionate about sustainable development in emerging markets. Dive into the infographic co-produced by the Global Landscapes Forum in collaboration with BlueOrchard to see how this approach empowers everyday investors to make a positive impact on our planet through nature-based financing.

Explore the Luxembourg-GLF Finance for Nature Platform and uncover opportunities for sustainable impact.

The post Blended finance, explained: Global, Green Fund of Funds Strategy appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

Earth Skills Network (ESN) was a collaboration between Earthwatch, UNESCO, IUCN and businesses. It connected leaders from the business and conservation communities through mentoring and skill-sharing opportunities. The knowledge gained through this global network provides new resources and tools to safeguard the future of vital conservation areas.

Challenges

Protected areas are the cornerstone of international efforts to conserve biodiversity. They safeguard vital ecosystem services, upon which communities and businesses depend. Yet protected areas face a broad range of challenges with many sites struggling to meet minimum standards. A lack of key organisational, management and business skills is a contributing factor, but protected area managers rarely have the opportunity to train in these fields.

Companies have a wealth of experienced staff and devote significant resources to effective business management. However, there are often few opportunities for their managers to consider the value of natural resources to the business.

Beneficiaries

Protected area managers (at site, management authority or local government level). Business professionals from ESN partners receive training as Business Mentors.

Impacts

Cross-sector skill-sharing partnerships have many applications. The programme has partnered 52 Business Mentors with 148 staff from 51 protected areas across Africa and Asia. As well as sharpening their professional competencies, business leaders build constructive dialogue with protected areas, which helps them to increase their understanding of protected areas and environmental and social sustainability.

Most protected area managers are trained conservation professionals, which gives them a solid grounding to respond to a wide range of challenges, but means they may lack business and management skills. The challenges they must address go beyond those relating to ecosystem health and include those related to running organisational systems and processes. If a protected area lacks organisational effectiveness then it will be compromised in its ability to deliver conservation outcomes.

Companies can offer experienced staff and expertise on key methods for business management. By training business leaders as mentors, ESN can help sites to take a more strategic approach. Furthermore, ESN benefits business by allowing senior staff to understand the value of natural resources to businesses and society, and how business decisions can impact on protected areas.

Story

Mole National Park, Ghana, is a key wildlife area for elephants and antelopes and is considered an important site by Ghana’s Wildlife Division, which is responsible for all wildlife in the country and administers the protected areas. Andrew Stevenson is a Global Account Manager from Shell. With a background in strategic planning and previous commercial experience in Ghana, Andrew made an ideal business mentor for Farouk Dubiure, the Park Manager at Mole National Park.

Prior to ESN, Farouk and his team had little exposure to business planning and marketing. Andrew brought a wealth of experience and supported Farouk in these areas during the Residential Training Programme and through ongoing mentoring.

The Residential Training Programme facilitated open discussion between Andrew, Farouk and his team on the needs and challenges of Mole National Park. They worked together to write an action plan to focus on priority needs for the protected area.

Over the 12-month mentoring period, Andrew helped Farouk and his team apply their learnings and implement the action plan. Actions included:

Developing a proposal to finance the upgrading of road infrastructure and the park’s facilities to enable Mole National Park to become more accessible and attractive to eco-tourists. Through this, they secured US$ 30,000 to upgrade critical game-viewing roads.
Developing a marketing plan to increase the visibility of the park. They have since developed a new website on Mole National Park (with the support of a partner) which is helping to attract new visitors to the area. The marketing plan is also allowing them to advertise their new luxury lodge to a different customer base.

Identifying and targeting potential sources of funding to help achieve the park’s conservation objectives. For example, Mole National Park successfully sourced over US$ 130,000 from the African Elephant Fund for the conservation of the park’s elephants.

Participating in ESN has enabled Farouk and his team to further develop their stakeholder skills. The Northern Regional Manager of Ghana’s Wildlife Division commented that “The ESN programme is showing a visible impact. Since receiving mentor support, [Farouk] is networking and collaborating more with organisations and attracting more development projects for the protected area.”

Andrew was inspired and motivated by his experiences of working with a protected area. This experience has benefitted his stakeholder engagement in sustainable development.

Other contributors

Stacey Baggaley
Earthwatch Europe

Portals

This solution is published in the PANORAMA 30×30 Solutions and PANORAMA Business Engagement community.

The post Improving protected area management through business skill-sharing partnerships appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

À propos du forum numérique sur la finance durable pour les solutions basées sur la nature

The post Finance Durable pour les Solutions fondées sur la Nature appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

Access to finance is a key element of sustainable and inclusive landscapes

This infographic summarizes the main findings from the study Access to Landscape Finance for Small-Scale Producers and Local Communities: A Literature Review which identifies the factors that contribute to or hinder inclusive financing for micro/small/medium-sized enterprises and projects across sectors in ways that collectively contribute to more sustainable landscapes in the tropics.

The key factors in the design of inclusive landscape finance are landscape governance, the financial literacy of local stakeholders, access to finance technology and services, and inclusive finance facilities and associated mechanisms for integrated (i.e., multi-project, multi-sector, spatially coordinated) landscape finance.

The most frequent challenges are the types of existing financial products, the lack of livelihood assets among recipients (such as capital and income), the lack of transparency in finance mechanisms, the small scale of potential business cases, and the high risks perceived by finance providers and their customers.

Learn more about Tropenbos International (TBI) work.

The post Inclusive finance for sustainable landscapes appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About GLF Africa 2022

GLF Africa 2022: How to build an equitable, resilient food future brought together over 8,500 participants from 122 countries and featured 182 leading scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, financiers, youth and government leaders, and 68 incredible partners to explore African solutions to the global food crisis caused by climate change, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. 

Across 31 plenaries, interactive sessions, launches, virtual tours, dialogues, performances, and a job fair, the digital conference explored ways to transform the future of food through healthy landscapes, equitable access to land, and shorter, greener value chains. Messages on social media rallied 26 million people around concrete ways for Africa to regain its food sovereignty.

Boosting finance for sustainable agriculture in Africa

Africa is losing an alarming 3.9 million hectares of forest ecosystems each year. How can the continent prevent these losses while also providing its population with healthy diets and livelihoods?

This session gathers innovators and entrepreneurs in agriculture to discuss the challenges the sector faces in accessing funds to scale their sustainable business models. Together they explore ways to boost financing for sustainable agriculture in Africa, including challenges and opportunities facing African agribusinesses, as well as good practices for impact investing in green commodities value chains:

• Jane Feehan from the European Investment Bank(EIB) elaborates on the work the Bank is doing in financing smaller institutions and supporting microfinance banks that can make smaller loans to the farmers. By doing so, « the Bank faces the issue of risk in loans by smarter restructuring, which provides the risk capital. » Feehan also mentions that the EIB is powerful in climate action and aligns with the Paris Agreement.
• Lorisa Canillas from Cordaid Investment Group, points out their organization helps bridge the finance gap by promoting investment in sustainable agriculture. « Innovations in finance are needed in order to increase investment in sustainable agriculture in Africa because of several early-stage innovations. »
• Anthony Kimani, Investment services manager at E4Impact, claims there is a need for a blended finance approach as the best way to increase financing for sustainable agriculture in Africa as it combines risk, opening the space for commercial investors as a result.

This session was developed in the context of the Luxembourg-GLF Finance for Nature Platform

Learn about 4 ways the private sector can help scale sustainable agriculture in Africa

The post Mobilizing finance at scale to boost sustainable agriculture in Africa appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About GLF Africa 2022

GLF Africa 2022: How to build an equitable, resilient food future brought together over 8,500 participants from 122 countries and featured 182 leading scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, financiers, youth and government leaders, and 68 incredible partners to explore African solutions to the global food crisis caused by climate change, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. 

Across 31 plenaries, interactive sessions, launches, virtual tours, dialogues, performances, and a job fair, the digital conference explored ways to transform the future of food through healthy landscapes, equitable access to land, and shorter, greener value chains. Messages on social media rallied 26 million people around concrete ways for Africa to regain its food sovereignty.

Rangeland restoration through sustainable value chain development

This round table brings together financiers and commercial sector, livestock value chain, and rangeland restoration actors to discuss how the linkages between sustainable livestock value chains and rangeland restoration can be strengthened, and investment in rangeland restoration improved.

Jointly organized by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and GLF’s Sustainable Finance Team the session combines discussions and hard talking with films and presentations of good practice. The aim of this session is to kick-start new partnerships for rangeland restoration through sustainable value chain development.

The post Financing sustainable livestock value chains for rangeland restoration appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About GLF Africa 2022

GLF Africa 2022: How to build an equitable, resilient food future brought together over 8,500 participants from 122 countries and featured 182 leading scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, financiers, youth and government leaders, and 68 incredible partners to explore African solutions to the global food crisis caused by climate change, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. 

Across 31 plenaries, interactive sessions, launches, virtual tours, dialogues, performances, and a job fair, the digital conference explored ways to transform the future of food through healthy landscapes, equitable access to land, and shorter, greener value chains. Messages spread on social media rallied 26 million people around concrete ways for Africa to regain its food sovereignty.

How can we transform food systems and develop green supply chains across Africa?

In this closing plenary, Special Adviser on Africa to the United Nations Secretary-General Cristina Duarte, along with key speakers, introduces the concept of innovative ecosystems which are economic engines that scale innovations with high potential. They are fueled by collaboration and form support networks or enabling environments to elevate ideas, start-ups, and local organizations to their full potential.

By working across sectors and geopolitical boundaries, Africa can combine modern innovation, science, local practices, and traditional knowledge to attract the investment needed for a sustainable rural transformation.

Learn about the Impact Potential of Agricultural SMEs in Africa 

The post Closing plenary: towards a resilient, equitable and African-led food future appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

The post En plein pendant les crises climatiques et alimentaires mondiales, l’Afrique se construit un avenir alimentaire plus radieux appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

The post La plus grande initiative mondiale sur la viande sauvage durable lance une visite virtuelle appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.