Objectives: The Landscape Fund (TLF) provides a network-based system for financing sustainable land use at scale. Its purpose is to transform agriculture, agroforestry and forestry investments in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia by delivering capital in a new way that combines innovative approaches from science, finance and technology. TLF aims to improve livelihood opportunities, increase resource efficiency with reduced social and environmental impacts and secure investment opportunities at scale for equity funds seeking reliable returns while contributing to sustainability outcomes.
This session presented and discussed lessons from the TLF Pilot Phase, compiled key remarks of institutional contributors, partners and other market players and presented innovative tools for tracking (sustainability) success. Case studies highlighted concrete challenges that the fund aims to address in emerging markets.
Imperative to the deployment of TLF, the following key discussion points were raised during this session:
- Design, testing and improvement of pilot operational systems (securitization software, monitoring sustainability outcomes, database of land practices, vetted aggregators ad more).
- Selection of vetted host institution to manage TLF, and design of governance and oversight arrangements.
- Mobilization of capital to enable testing at scale in up to six countries in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
Background Reading:
- CIFOR DG Blog(s) (Holmgren, P., 2014.)
- Financing sustainable forest landscapes. Conservation Letters 7 (6): 499-500 (Burrows, M., 2015.)
- The Landscape Fund: Concept Note (CIFOR and The Munden Project, 2014); will be made available during the event session.
- Global Landscape Funds – Legal Aspects (Cordonier Segger, M-C and Philips, F-K, 2015)
