RAIZ will support governments and financial partners restore degraded agricultural areas while rebuilding natural ecosystems.
Announced this morning at the COP30 UN Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, leaders from Australia, Canada, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Norway, Peru and the United Kingdom have now pledged to back the Resilient Agriculture Investment for Net Zero Land Degradation.
Building not he lessons of Green Way and Eco Invest in Brazil – which have mobilised around $6billion in public and private loans to restore 3million hectares of pastureland, the aim is to tackle the 20% of global agricultural land which is now degraded. Equivalent to 1billion hectares, reducing this by half would increase international food production by 44million tonnes annually
Currently, capital is a major obstacle, with estimates putting the funding gap at around $105billion. Private companies have the capacity to cover most of this – around $90billion – but high up front costs stand in their way, leading to lengthy and often unsustainable payback timelines. Governments are uniquely placed to help de-risk this investment area, opening the floodgates to corporate finance at scale.
‘Building on initiatives like the Brazilian Green Way and EcoInvest programs, we can unlock billions globally to restore degraded farmland, protect biodiversity, and ensure food security,’ said Bruno Brasil, Director of Sustainable Production at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA), Brazil. ‘Scaling these models is key to driving restoration that works for farmers, communities, and the planet.’
RAIZ will prioritise the following steps:
- Map degraded landscapes to prioritize areas for investment: An interactive mapping toolwill respond to the need for accurate analysis, enabling funding to be directed to areas with the highest potential for productivity gains.
- Identify investable restoration solutions and assess the financing needs: Governments will be supported to identify investable restoration solutions and develop a Farmland Restoration Finance Assessment outlining costs, returns, funding gaps and identifying possible sources of finance.
- Design optimal co-investment mechanisms and scale proven solutions: RAIZ will convene governments and interested investors to build or tailor co-investment vehicles that leverage public finance to derisk private investments and reduce the cost of capital.
- Foster collaboration and knowledge exchange within the ecosystem: RAIZ will consolidate lessons from national experiences into case studies and guidance to inform global peer learning and improve enabling conditions for restoration finance.
‘The United Kingdom welcomes the RAIZ accelerator as a much-needed way to build collaboration and innovative finance to restore degraded land globally, which in turn supports our ecosystems, strengthens livelihoods, and builds food security and resilience,’ said Mary Creagh, Minister of Nature, United Kingdom. ‘The UK is delighted to have worked with Brazil on the development of RAIZ and we look forward to the further progress of this important work.’
Image: Matt Seymour / Unsplash
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