Bringing Landscape Finance into Full Focus in Cali

COP16 is drawing to a close in Cali, Colombia, this week as global leaders, experts, and key stakeholders make a final push to turn biodiversity pledges into action. Teams across the 1000L network are hard at work on the ground advocating for collaborative, holistic approaches to achieving global biodiversity goals, with a laserlike focus on how nations will address the funding gap to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). With only 16 countries having submitted their strategic action plans by October 2024, there is a significant push for more nations to meet their commitments in the coming months.?

Leaders in the conservation, finance, and restoration space are lending their voices to spotlight the power and potential of landscape finance as a potent framework for achieving these goals. Amid all of the exciting discussions, a clear directive has emerged: We need an urgent reimagination of our global finance system in order to effectively achieve such large-scale change.?

While much of the work is arguably in the hands of finance facilities, philanthropies, and other funding entities, policy has an increasingly significant role to play. While the GBF outlines the targets themselves, the process and framework to achieve them are much more nuanced and complex. Landscapes and landscape partnerships can play unique roles in achieving these goals; government policies that support coordinated, collaborative funding efforts are essential pieces of the puzzle.?

Illuminating the path forward are insights from the upcoming report?Towards Financing Large-scale Holistic Landscape Restoration in Latin America and the Caribbean.?Led by Commonland, EcoAgriculture Partners, and the Initiative 20x20, with input from more than 20 partner organizations, this report introduces landscape finance as a practical framework to redirect funding flows to achieve large-scale and long-term restoration impacts.?

Using the unique context of landscapes in Latin America and the Caribbean, the report spotlights key recommendations that can inspire action among policymakers while leveraging landscape partnerships to unlock new methods of funding for large-scale restoration. These recommendations aim to create an enabling environment with aligned policies to facilitate the development of comprehensive landscape finance structures to support transformative change across the region.

The launch of this publication kicks off today in Cali, at the event Landscape Finance for Holistic Landscape Restoration in Latin America and the Caribbean in the Dutch Pavilion. If you or anyone on your team is still at COP16, we’d love for them to join!

If you’re not in Cali, you can still access the report here.?

We’ve got our regular installment of news and developments in the landscape finance space below, so be sure to check them out!

• Commonland Spotlights Upcoming COP16 Publication Launch: Towards Financing Large-scale Holistic Landscape Restoration. Calling for a dramatic shift in financing practices across Latin America and the Caribbean, it takes a holistic landscape-level approach to support nature restoration projects that effectively address climate change and biodiversity loss. The report will be formally launched this Thursday, 31 October, at this COP16 event co-hosted by 1000L.?
• Landscape Finance Lab launch a €160 million N+ Facility to Boost Biodiversity Investments into Critical Landscapes. Aimed at driving biodiversity investments across critical landscapes, this initiative seeks to mobilize capital for nature-based solutions in restored forests, wetlands, resilient seascapes, and regenerative agriculture. The facility will support large-scale biodiversity and climate resilience projects, with an official launch set for 2025.
• Brazil and France announce a green investment plan for the Amazon—a four-year initiative to raise €1 billion from public and private sources to help prevent deforestation in the Brazilian and Guyanese Amazon. The initiative will be supported through cooperation between the Brazilian Development Bank BNDES, the Amazon Bank, and the French Development Agency. Twenty-two new members, including banks such as Visa, Citibank, Aqua Capital, Bemol, and others, joined the Amazon Financial Network, an initiative launched by IFC and IDB to increase financing of sustainable projects in the Amazon region.

• Using Landscape Approaches in National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Planning. This practical guide is designed to facilitate the integration of landscape approaches into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs)—essential instruments for countries to achieve the goals and targets of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.?
• Lessons Learned from Integrated Landscape Finance to Advance the Global Biodiversity Framework. This report aims to inform the transition to more holistic plans by considering how the concepts, lessons, and tools of integrated landscape finance (ILF) can inform and strengthen NBSAPs and NBFPs to yield more effective, efficient, and equitable results for people and nature.

• Financing Nature-Based Solutions for Adaptation at Scale. This report, recently published by the Global Center on Adaptation, examines different types of nature-based solutions (NbS), from improving sustainable production practices to green infrastructure to ecosystem restoration. It also outlines innovative financing approaches across each type of solution.?
• IFACC—Mobilizing Capital to Scale Responsible Expansion of Crops and Livestock in Brazil. Developed in partnership between Boston Consulting Group (BCG), WWF, and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), this report highlights the potential to increase production, boost livelihoods, and safeguard biodiversity by restoring over 100 hectares of Brazilian farmland. The report includes a call to mobilize $2 billion in catalytic capital to develop innovative financing mechanisms that complement the Low-Carbon Agriculture Plan.

• Landscape-level measurement for biodiversity and nature. Global regulatory context and reporting requirements increasingly incorporate biodiversity and nature components for the private sector. This joint brief with ProForest and ISEAL Alliance introduces how existing metrics and tools can help report on biodiversity and nature outcomes in landscape and jurisdictional approaches. This will help facilitate those working on these initiatives so they can better align their data collection with global corporate reporting needs.

• Investing in the San Pedro Landscape—Collaboration and Community in C?te d’Ivoire. Proforest collaborated with regional authorities, communities, and other partners to develop a comprehensive management and investment plan for the San Pedro landscape in C?te d’Ivoire. This new film spotlights the landscape program, the stakeholders involved in developing the management and investment plan, and the efforts required to implement it.?
• Financing Sustainable Landscapes for People and Nature. This publication outlines the Landscape Resilience Fund’s approach to sustainable landscape development, which integrates biodiversity, climate resilience, and community livelihoods through multi-stakeholder platforms and investment in small businesses.??

• Nature-Positive Strategy. Practical guidance for corporates. Pollination’s paper offers a set of principles for companies to consider when devising actions to halt and reverse nature loss and provides insightful case studies of these principles in action.

• Meeting Nature Goals: Landscape and Jurisdictional Approaches (Webpage) CDP recently added a new resource highlighting how landscape and jurisdictional approaches (LA/JA) help stakeholders collaborate to meet environmental goals across entire landscapes. These approaches aim to unify the public and private sectors, align interests, and foster multi-stakeholder governance for enhanced landscape outcomes. A major emphasis on tracking and improving the quality of company disclosures promotes transparency and long-term positive environmental impact.

Decoding COP16 and Its Implications for Landscape Finance

In the world of finance and global development, even the most knowledgeable experts can get lost in the sea of frameworks and finance plans. To help you out, we’ve aggregated the top takeaways on the implications for biodiversity goals within the context of landscape finance—an excellent cheat sheet for anyone looking to make the case for transforming our global finance system to safeguard our planet.?

• The Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and COP16: The GBF launched at COP15 laid out a “whole of government, whole of society” approach, with nations now tasked with creating action-oriented, spatially explicit National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). At COP16 in Cali, Colombia, countries must present updated NBSAPs and demonstrate how they plan to meet the 23 biodiversity goals set by the framework. The focus is not only on creating strategies but on securing both public and private finance to fund these goals. See: A landscape approach does a lot to do that. Learn more in this report published by UNU-IAS.

• Significance of Landscape Finance: Landscape finance offers an ideal framework for coordinating financial flows—across philanthropic, public, and private sources—essential for achieving biodiversity targets. It allows for a holistic approach that integrates funding for nature with infrastructure-like models, providing both biodiversity and climate adaptation benefits. At COP16, the spotlight will be on how landscape finance can help manage emerging physical climate risks while supporting equitable solutions for both people and nature.

• Bridging Climate, Nature, and Development Finance: Traditional finance often categorizes investments into separate silos—climate, nature, or development. Landscape finance breaks down these barriers, enabling integrated funding approaches at the landscape and territorial level, ensuring that all sectors work in harmony to support biodiversity and sustainable development. This integrated approach has already been highlighted in reports by organizations like EcoAg and the 20x20 initiative, with further recommendations expected at COP16.

• The Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022): The GBF sets 23 strategic goals to tackle the biodiversity crisis. These goals address habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and resource exploitation, aiming for 30% of terrestrial and marine areas to be protected by 2030. Additionally, a commitment is to restore 30% of degraded ecosystems and integrate biodiversity into urban planning, agriculture, and business practices. The framework also includes financial targets, with $200 billion annually earmarked for biodiversity conservation.

• NBSAPs and Biodiversity Finance Plans: National Biodiversity Finance Plans, supported by initiatives like UNDP’s BIOFIN, are key tools for securing the financial resources necessary to implement NBSAPs. These plans should connect with landscape partnerships to ensure that increased biodiversity financial flows align with local priorities and contribute to equitable solutions across various regions. EcoAgriculture Partners published a deep dive on this topic in this 2023 report.?

• Indigenous and Local Community Participation: COP16 discussions continue to highlight the importance of integrating traditional knowledge into biodiversity management. Adopting a Program for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities is expected to empower these groups to play central roles in biodiversity conservation, with increased access to decision-making processes and international funding.

• Financing the Future of Biodiversity: The current annual conservation investment of $150 billion falls short of the estimated $722–967 billion required. To address this, landscape finance strategies are positioned as effective mechanisms not only to raise funds but also to reduce negative financial impacts on nature. At COP16, the biodiversity financing gap remains a critical topic, with calls for ambitious financial commitments to bridge the gap between current spending and actual needs.

• Global Financing and Equity: Experts emphasize that reforming the global financial system is key to meeting biodiversity goals. The creation of the Kunming–Montreal Biodiversity Fund aimed to support developing nations—many of which are home to the world’s most biodiverse regions—with the necessary financial resources to implement their NBSAPs. The fund will incentivize conservation practices that protect ecosystems, promote sustainable resource use, and restore degraded habitats.

• The Role of COP16 in Shaping Future Biodiversity Policy: There is a laser focus at this COP on implementation and action, providing a platform for discussing the future of global biodiversity finance, Indigenous community participation, and strategies for integrating biodiversity into broader development goals.