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Africa can unlock billions for land restoration, UN official says
🇳🇬 Nigeria /Environment & Climate

Africa can unlock billions for land restoration, UN official says

From Premium Times · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • African governments must develop large, investable landscape programs instead of relying on project-by-project funding to attract public and private investment for land restoration.
  • Key financing mechanisms include project preparation support, sovereign and structured instruments like debt-for-nature swaps, domestic policy levers such as tax incentives, and risk-sharing instruments like guarantees and insurance.
  • Restoration should be treated as infrastructure with a revenue stream, generating value through agricultural products, ecosystem services, and carbon finance, ensuring benefits for local communities.

African nations can attract billions of dollars for land restoration by treating it as an investment rather than solely a development or humanitarian issue, according to Louise Baker, Director of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Global Mechanism.

Speaking at the UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Baker emphasized the need for governments to move beyond fragmented, project-based funding. Instead, they should develop large-scale, "bankable" landscape programs that can attract significant public and private capital. "The question is not where to find one big fund. It is how to move restoration from the aid column into the investment column," she stated.

The question is not where to find one big fund. It is how to move restoration from the aid column into the investment column.

— Louise BakerExplaining the shift needed in land restoration funding

Baker outlined four key financing approaches. Project preparation is crucial, as the main constraint is not a lack of capital but the availability of investment-ready projects. Sovereign and structured instruments, such as debt-for-nature swaps and nature-performance bonds, can consolidate financiers around national programs. Domestic policy levers, including tax incentives and repurposing harmful subsidies, are also highly effective. Finally, risk-sharing instruments like guarantees and insurance can mitigate investor concerns.

Nigeria, she noted, is well-positioned to implement these strategies. The country can aggregate community-level interventions into single investable units, treating restoration as infrastructure that generates revenue. This involves designing programs that restore land while simultaneously producing economic value through agriculture, such as livestock value chains, gum arabic, and irrigated horticulture, alongside ensuring water security. This approach aims to provide a clear return on investment, economic, social, and environmental, for potential investors.

Investors think in terms of return on investment, economic, social and environmental.

— Louise BakerDescribing how to make restoration attractive to investors
About this summary

Originally published by Premium Times in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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