New fund initiative hailed as an innovative climate solution at One Planet Summit

The ‘Land Degradation Neutrality Fund’ initiative promoted by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Mirova (Natixis) to support sustainable land use practices globally is highlighted as a concrete and innovative climate action during the One Planet Summit.

Initial investors, including the European Investment Bank and the Agence Française de Développement, have announced financial commitments totalling more than USD 100 million out of a target of USD 300 million.

At the One Planet Summit, organized to celebrate the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement, the ‘Land Degradation Neutrality Fund’ initiative is hailed by Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, as an innovative solution that aligns sustainable land management with the ambition of the Paris Agreement.

“The public sector must be bold and inventive to unleash a revolution in development and entrepreneurship that can tackle the manifold and complex challenges before us – climate change, loss of productive land, lack of jobs, forced migration, droughts, floods, the list seems endless. The moment we see the land differently our horizons open wide. Then, the options and possibilities are endless,” says Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD.

Developed by the UNCCD and Mirova, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers who also provided initial seeding for the Fund, it is one of the responses to the call for public and private finance in support of global climate action.

Restoring degraded land is a huge, yet greatly underestimated and underutilized opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to climate change. By putting sustainable land use at the heart of its climate action, the ‘Land Degradation Neutrality Fund’ initiative addresses the three summit objectives:

1. Act concretely and collectively: This joint effort to put finance at the service of climate action is the outcome of a unique coalition of actors. It will invest in sustainable land management practices all over the world that have already been shown to be effective, but need suitable financing and technical assistance.
2. Innovate: This will be the first investment vehicle to focus on a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target, and using an innovative public private partnership structure. Success could motivate the development of new investment vehicles for the goals.
3. Support one another: Climate change is a global issue, but the effects are distributed unevenly, with especially negative impacts on land users. Acting on a global scale, this investment vehicle will therefore provide flexible financing solutions where traditional bank funding is not available.

As early supporter of the fund, all the way through the design and structuring phases, the European Investment Bank was joined by the Agence Française de Développement to become the anchor investors.

Other institutional investors include Fondaction, the first north-American private investor, foundation Fondation de France, insurance companies BNP Paribas Cardif and Garance.

The initiative is also backed by de-risking partners including the Government of Luxembourg, IDB Invest and the Global Environment Facility. In total, investors have announced commitments of over USD 100 million out of a target of USD 300 million.

Researchers and policymakers meet to discuss cassava agronomy

Scientists across Africa and their colleagues in other parts of the world are meeting with policymakers in Tanzania under the auspices of the African Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) to discuss the progress made in the last two years in providing clues to the agronomy of cassava.

The meeting, holding December 11-15, is set to review the progress made by the ACAI—a project managed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture— and plan for the year ahead.

Addressing participants at the meeting, the Permanent Secretary, Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, expressed optimism that the ACAI project would provide solutions to some of the problems faced by cassava farmers in Tanzania and sub-Saharan Africa.

The Permanent Secretary was represented by Dr Geophrey Kajiru, Assistant Director, Research and Development.

The Tanzanian meeting, which is taking place in Mwanza, will also include a planning workshop for the ACAI 2018 project activities in line with the implementation strategy for year 3 of the project. The meeting is thus organized for planning and setting new goals for the 2018 activities, sharing roles, and understanding the expectations of each party represented in the project.

The event is earmarked to set pace for transitioning into the validation and the onset of dissemination stage of the Decision Support Tools (DSTs).

Dr Bernard Vanlauwe, Director for Central Africa Hub with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), said ACAI would tap into new opportunities and partnerships to ensure sustainability of the project and use of the tools developed.

Through extensive research working with development partners, ACAI has developed the initial version of the decision support tools that will be showcased at the meeting. This will provide an opportunity for the partners to examine the tools and offer feedback on how the prototype DSTs can be improved. ACAI DSTs are developed based on demand and needs identified by development partners actively engaged in cassava value chain.

ACAI’s Senior Systems Agronomist, Dr Pieter Pypers said the interaction among project partners would generate concrete ideas that would be incorporated into the development of the DSTs to make them more useful and user friendly.

“The tools we have developed must meet the needs of the development partners, that is why we are planning for the partners to have a practical feel of the tools in Mwanza and share with us their expectations of the tools,” Dr Pypers added.

Project team members are making presentations on the progress of the work under their specific roles in the project. ACAI is structured in workstreams that inform the project’s critical path through research, development, to the use and dissemination of the final project tools.

Dr Geoffrey Mkamilo, the National Coordinator for Root and Tuber Crops, Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) in Tanzania said the project had made significant gains in 2017 in research especially in meeting the high demand data in ACAI.

“The trials have performed very well, especially when you look at cassava response to fertilizer in the field, we are looking to hear about updates from other project sites,” Dr Adeyemi Olojede, ACAI coordinator at the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike said.

The project has achieved significant milestones in 2017, a trend that the core team and partners will be seeking to further in the new season.

The meeting in Tanzania has more than 60 participants representing at least 21 organizations partnering with ACAI in Nigeria and Tanzania.

Forests can be a third of the climate solution, but international support does not add up

A STATEMENT FROM 13 ENVIRONMENTAL NGOS:

Forests are a critically underfunded climate solution. 

Keeping forests standing and restoring those which have been lost and degraded, could absorb up to 5.5 billion tons of carbon pollution each year, as much as 80% of direct emissions from the world’s transport sector. Forest and land-use could contribute 30% of the climate mitigation needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Yet, forests receive only a fraction -2% - of international development finance to mitigate climate change.

More funds are needed to protect and restore forests, as well as to revert the widespread tropical forest degradation. An estimated $200 billion per year is required for a global transformation to deforestation-free agriculture. According to the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, approximately $50-100 billion annually could be invested in sustainable agricultural intensification, restoration of degraded lands and livestock management. Countries also need support to strengthen their institutions, policies and forest governance.

It is essential to shift existing finance toward sustainable land use. Over $777 billion has been spent on agriculture and land-intensive development since 2010, in the form of investments and subsidies from governments, the private sector and international donors. This number dwarfs finance in support of forests: $2.7 billion investment in green commodities, or $8.1 billion in international public finance to support countries that seek to reduce tropical deforestation. To stop the loss of forest protection has to be factored into agricultural, infrastructure, and other investments. Redirecting finance toward sustainable land use promotes healthier and more productive landscapes in producer countries while reducing deforestation.

Redirecting existing financial flows could be achieved with the targeted and strategic use of public funds. A public-private dialogue that helps to redirect subsidies and supports deforestation-free commodities could help deploy finance strategically with the goal of leveraging private investments. New financial instruments could help to support farmers, de-risk investments and promote integrated landscape investments that combine an increase in agricultural productivity with the protection of forests and other ecosystems.

There is wide societal support for the protection of forests, but more needs to be done. The nearly 200 companies, governments, civil society organizations and indigenous peoples’ groups that have endorsed the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF), which aims to halt global forest loss by 2030, provide a starting point for further mobilization and the proposed dialogue.

We call on the One Planet Summit to publicly elevate the importance of forests as a climate solution and agree on a concrete plan to mobilize green finance for a sustainable and inclusive transition to a deforestation-free economy.