Rainforest Alliance includes farmers and forest communities, companies, governments, civil society, and millions of individuals. Together we work to protect forests and biodiversity, take action on climate, and promote human rights and improve the livelihoods of rural people.

Their four main areas of work are all interconnected and have been designed to drive sustainability in the sectors and landscapes where we believe we can make the biggest difference for people and nature:

1. Certification: Provides a path toward more resilient and inclusive agricultural practices, with a focus on cocoa, coffee, tea, bananas, and other tropical commodities.

2. Landscape management: Develop and implement long-term conservation and community development programs in a number of critically important tropical landscapes.

3. Advocacy: Work with governments, companies, and civil society organizations to advance policies that support rural producers who invest in sustainability transformation.

4. Tailored supply chain services: Provide customized support to help companies define and achieve their sustainability commitments within certification and beyond.

The post Rainforest Alliance Mission: People and Nature Thriving Together appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

This report assesses the state of biodiversity finance and recommends new financial mechanisms, focusing on biodiversity-positive carbon credits and nature certificates. It was developed by a High-Level Working Group with support from an Expert Panel.

Key Messages

1. Financial gap: global biodiversity financing needs to increase to $200 billion annually by 2030, while reducing harmful subsidies by $500 billion per year.
2. Innovative instruments: biodiversity-positive carbon credits and nature certificates can help bridge the financing gap and generate private sector interest.
3. Governance and policy: effective governance, clear policies, and institutional frameworks are crucial for market integrity and scaling up finance.
4. IPLC involvement: full participation and benefit-sharing with IPLCs are essential for successful stewardship of forests and biodiversity.
5. Market development: practical metrics, robust verification processes, and demand incentives are needed to develop high-integrity markets.

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The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) defines carbon markets as trading systems in which carbon credits are sold and bought. Companies or individuals can use carbon markets to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing carbon credits from entities that remove or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

One tradable carbon credit equals one tonne of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas reduced, sequestered or avoided. When a credit is used to reduce, sequester, or avoid emissions, it becomes an offset and is no longer tradable.

The challenge

While carbon markets have the potential to reduce emissions and support a low-carbon transition, they face criticism for issues like questionable carbon offset projects, carbon leakage, market manipulation, transparency, pricing, and the potential impact on community land tenure rights. As global demand for voluntary carbon credits continues to grow, there is an urgent need to address these risks and protect the rights of local communities.

Securing Land Tenure in Carbon Markets: TMG’s efforts

TMG Research, at the Africa Climate Summit, emphasized the critical importance of safeguarding land tenure rights in carbon markets, particularly for women and in regions like Africa where land rights are at risk.

TMG is committed to tackling the risks that carbon markets pose to communities lacking tenure rights and aims to foster their active engagement in these markets.In this white paper, we explore prominent risks and strategies to empower communities as active participants in carbon markets. We aim to help them contribute to market management and reap benefits. This is achieved through four reflections:

1. Land Tenure and Carbon Markets: Insecure land tenure in Africa risks rural livelihoods, carbon projects lack safeguards, impacting communities.
2. Environmental Challenges in Carbon Offsets: Afforestation can harm biodiversity and ecosystems, carbon offset projects have concerns like leakage and permanence.
3. Overstated Carbon Reductions in Forest Offsets: Forest offset projects exaggerate carbon savings, the credibility of carbon credits is in question.
4. Questioning Carbon Credits: Carbon credits’ impact on emissions reduction is debated; Concerns about transparency and moral licensing; A reassessment of carbon market frameworks is needed to protect land rights and ensure moral legitimacy.

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About the 6th GLF Investment Case Symposium

Hosted in Luxembourg and online, GLF–Luxembourg Finance for Nature 2023: What comes next? united 4,500 participants from 160 countries around how finance can solve – rather than exacerbate – the climate and biodiversity crises. The event featured 106 speakers and 100 global and local partner organizations and reached 10 million people on social media, with more than 230,000 engagements.

About this session

The session launched a new guide developed by IUCN and FOLUR that lays out a methodology for agribusinesses to manage their risks through investing in landscape restoration. The guide was developed based on a collaboration with three private-sector counterparts working with agricultural commodities (sugar and cocoa value chains in Tanzania, Peru, and Ghana) on how to restore landscapes in their supply chains.

Resources

Publication: Preview – A guide to investing in landscape restoration to sustain agrifood supply chains

Video: Reduce risks along supply chains by investing in landscape restoration

The post Catalyzing investments for landscape restoration in agrifood supply chains: Sharing experiences and tools appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About the 6th Investment Case Symposium

Hosted in Luxembourg and online, the GLF–Luxembourg Finance for Nature 2023: What comes next? united 4,500 participants from 160 countries, 106 speakers, and 100 global and local partner organizations, and reached 10 million people on social media, with more than 230 thousand engagements, around how finance can solve – rather than exacerbate – the climate and biodiversity crises.

About this session

Many corporate and financial investors have adopted net-zero emission targets and biodiversity commitments. However, it remains difficult to ensure compliance in a robust and cost-effective manner, such as that agricultural loans do not contribute to deforestation, or to demonstrate that investments increase biodiversity. Impact investors are therefore increasingly demanding impact monitoring tools to ensure that investments generate no harm and provide restoration benefits in terms of enhanced resilience to climate change and biodiversity conservation.

Resources

Presentation: Environmental impact monitoring and assessment

Presentation: Impact monitoring for forests landscape restoration (FLR)

Presentation: Impact monitoring to scale nature-based investments

The post Demonstrate what works: Better impact monitoring to scale nature-based investments appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About the 6th GLF Investment Case Symposium

Hosted in Luxembourg and online, GLF–Luxembourg Finance for Nature 2023: What comes next? united 4,500 participants from 160 countries around how finance can solve – rather than exacerbate – the climate and biodiversity crises. The event featured 106 speakers and 100 global and local partner organizations and reached 10 million people on social media, with more than 230,000 engagements.

About this session

The Mobilising More for Climate (MoMo4C) and Green Finance for Sustainable Landscapes (GF4SL) programs aim to develop investment-ready projects that combine climate and biodiversity action in remote, biodiversity-rich landscapes.

The programs use an integrated landscape approach that brings relevant stakeholders together to collaborate and attract entrepreneurs with ecosystem-based solutions for climate adaptation and mitigation.

The session highlighted solutions that the landscape partners found to address complex challenges encountered in landscapes in Cameroon, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana and Indonesia. Challenges and solutions will be discussed in a panel of experts from the financial and development sector, and elements will be identified for a roadmap towards scaling of solutions.

Resources

Infographic: Inclusive finance for sustainable landscapes

Presentation: Estratégia PCI Pacto Vale do Juruena

Presentation: Lessons learned from integrated landscape finance to advance the Global Biodiversity Framework

Interview: Interview with Achmad Zainudin, Jepara Wood Craftsmen Association

The post Addressing the complexity of directing sustainable climate finance to the Global South appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

Presented by Una Jones, CEO & Founder of the Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA) during the 6th GLF Investment Case Symposium, this presentation helps identify opportunities to enhance and widen the SFA’s positive impact across cashmere-producing regions and along the extended cashmere supply chain.

The post Sustainable Fibre Alliance appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

About the 6th Investment Case Symposium

Hosted in Luxembourg and online, GLF–Luxembourg Finance for Nature 2023: What comes next? united 4,500 participants from 160 countries, 106 speakers, and 100 global and local partner organizations, and reached 10 million people on social media, with more than 230 thousand engagements, around how finance can solve – rather than exacerbate – the climate and biodiversity crises.

Across 37 plenaries, expert sessions, special announcements, networking sessions, dialogues, onsite presentations, and inspirational talks, the event sparked vibrant conversations on the state of sustainable finance in 2023, including the latest innovations, success stories, investable projects, and much more.

What is the future of finance for nature in India?

Where is sustainable finance headed in India – home to four of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots? We ask Namita Vikas, founder and managing director of auctus ESG, about the opportunities and challenges facing finance for nature in India.

The post Interview with Namita Vikas – opportunities and challenges on finance for nature in India appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

The post One Acre Fund – connecting climate financing with the people who need it the most appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.

Acorn – Agroforestry CRUs for the Organic Restoration of Nature – is an agroforestry program that unlocks the international voluntary carbon market for smallholder farmers. Acorn’s mission is to combat climate change, land degradation, and food insecurity with an inclusive agroforestry solution. This solution balances competing land use demands in a way that benefits both human well-being and the environment. This means land use that has a positive impact on food supply and livelihoods, the economy, environmental restoration, climate targets, and development goals.

The purpose and scope of this document

Acorn aims to give smallholder farmers cost-efficient access to international carbon markets and enable them to transition to agroforestry at scale. To do this, Acorn has laid out a robust Framework that ensures a scalable and accessible approach to carbon certification, which is complemented by the Methodology.

The post The Acorn Framework for voluntary, ex-post, agroforestry carbon removal units appeared first on Global Landscapes Forum.