Perspectives, insights and opinions from 1000 Landscapes experts and practitioners
With the 1000L Finance Solutions Design Team working on system change, we think it’s important to stay well-informed about the latest sustainable finance innovations and actors operating in the space. We’re happy to continue our finance-focused newsletter, a resource to help all gain more perspective on landscape finance. These are the landscape finance-related developments and reports that caught our eye in the Spring of 2022.
From May 9-20, global experts will come together in Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire to showcase and source solutions to some of the world’s most pressing land-use challenges at the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 15). 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People initiative and partners will join the conversation through several side events focused on tools to support effective landscape partnerships and innovations in integrated landscape finance.
EcoAgriculture Partners Manager Juan Ramos joined a panel to discuss how partnerships can finance forest management projects. Such initiatives can address climate change while protecting biodiversity and boosting livelihoods. The event was part of the Yale Society of Tropical Foresters annual conference in January 2022.
Activity continues to bubble over in the world of landscape finance and related fields such as place-based investment, conservation finance and more. Our periodic finance-focused newsletter is a resource to help anyone interested in landscape finance gain more perspective on this ever-evolving field.
Ecosystem restoration means assisting in the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as conserving the ecosystems that are still intact. Evidence shows that this focus can help fight the world’s most pressing challenges. But to succeed, the private sector needs to be at the forefront.
A flurry of conservation- and landscape-finance developments took place late in 2021, spurred on by November’s UN climate conference (COP26) and others associated with it. The private sector, governments and development banks offered bold financial pledges and commitments.
One clear example of this determination is the more than 100 countries that pledged to end deforestation and land degradation by 2030, backed by $12 billion in public funds and $7.2 billion in private investment. Among the pledges, the UK government committed at least £3 billion to promote nature and biodiversity, including a new £500 million package to help protect 5 million hectares of rainforests. Meanwhile, more than 30 financial institutions—representing $8.7 trillion in assets—said they would phase out deforestation from their commodity portfolios by 2025.
Agribusiness companies are shifting their operations and corporate mission statements in ways that would be unheard of just a few short years ago. Their objectives are lofty–finding ways to future-proof their supply chains while addressing environmental degradation, climate change and the needs of the communities where they work.
This effort comes from a genuine place. Many now see the need to look at how their corporate decisions impact the broader world. And it’s being spurred on for many reasons: meeting sustainability commitments; reducing business risks associated with natural resource degradation, climate change and community relations; protecting fixed assets and securing supplies of critical resources or products not easily sourced elsewhere; and sharing or saving operational or investment costs.
Landscape finance was the talk of the town in Glasgow, Scotland, during November’s UN COP26 climate conference and another held by the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF). In this edition of the 1000L Finance Solutions Design Team newsletter, we review some of the critical landscape finance-related developments and reports that emerged from these events.
The world faces many critical challenges, from climate change to crushing rural poverty, massive species decline and widespread land degradation. More and more, businesses are joining governments and civil society to create solutions bold enough to have a global impact. But much more needs to happen for the corporate world to help turn the tide.
Those were the major takeaways of a recent high-level panel discussion hosted by 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People’s (1000L) partners and supporters EcoAgriculture Partners, Rainforest Alliance and the Laudes Foundation. The event, Better Business Through Integrated Landscape Management: An Executive Roundtable, featured 17 participants from global companies in finance, agriculture, food and beverage, retail, cosmetics and apparel.
During a recent conference on ecosystem services presented by the American University of Armenia’s (AUA) Acopian Center for the Environment, 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People (1000L) Chair Sara Scherr discussed one of the most robust solutions to address global issues: integrated land management (ILM). The approach combines natural resource management with environmental and economic considerations to optimize the outputs of all three.