Delegates at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17 summit agreed to develop the Business4Land (B4L) platform to connect finance with green value chains, as host country Mongolia announced the launch of the Rangelands Flagship Initiative.
The agreements were reached during the Ministerial dialogue on Innovative Financial Mechanisms for Healthy Land and Drought Resilience, which convened UNCCD Parties alongside government, business, and civil society leaders. The newly agreed B4L platform aims to link consumption, production, and finance through environmental and social standards, as well as financial products focused on preserving natural capital.
Mongolia’s Rangelands Flagship Initiative provides for the sustainable management and restoration of pastures, the creation of a global coalition on pastures and pastoralism, and the establishment of the Eurasian Centre for Climate-Resilient Rangelands in the country.
Throughout the dialogue, countries presented diverse approaches to financing land restoration and incorporating land-use and drought resilience into the programmes of multilateral development banks and institutional investors.
The World Bank Group has invested more than US$3 bn across 31 countries to establish land registration and cadastral systems as a prerequisite for effective resource management.
“At the World Bank Group, our approach focuses on two fundamental but also complementary priorities. One is about strengthening the land system. The other that is treating land as a productive capital asset,” said Chen Guangzhe, Vice President for the Planet Vice Presidency at the World Bank Group.
Brazilian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Joao Paulo Capobianco told TV BRICS in an exclusive comment that financing remains a primary gap in turning UNCCD commitments into concrete action.
“The BRICS countries have a very high level of responsibility because they share an important part of the world’s biodiversity, landscapes, populations, food production and water resources. So, we have an opportunity to lead by example. We have our development bank, which can demonstrate and develop new ways of financing programmes. We can reduce the risks for private capital to invest in restoration and efforts to combat desertification,” Capobianco said.
South African Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Bernice Swarts outlined her government’s Expanded Public Works Programme, which directs public funds towards removing invasive plants and restoring land while providing participants with employment and professional skills.
“As an example of the alien invasives that we remove, we’ve got a comprehensive programme around the eco-furniture in which we are using these alien invasive plants. At scale, government is investing US$582 million per annum in land care programmes,” Swarts said.
China proposed viewing its funding path as a consistent transformation. Zhang Liming, Deputy Director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration of China, outlined three stages of this process: “Firstly, moving from a purely budgetary approach to a two-pronged approach, combining budgetary and financial levers. […] Secondly, we have moved from a state-led approach to one which is guided by the state but which is market-led. […] Thirdly, we move from an approach which is based on governance to a construction- and management-based one.”
Indian Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav noted that India issues sovereign green bonds and implements a green credit programme, awarding credits after five years of restoration work once a minimum canopy density of 40 per cent is achieved. A compensatory afforestation regime also directs payments for the diversion of forest land towards ecosystem restoration.
Ruslan Edelgeriev, Special Presidential Representative of the Russian Federation for Climate and Water Resources, said the success of any mechanism is measured by the quality of governance alongside capital.
“We support developing practical instruments which would enable us to move national priorities to concrete, economically grounded projects; grant and concessional financing guarantees; securities; insurance; risk-reduction mechanisms; and voluntary public-private partnerships. […] It’s crucial that financial approaches be developed and take into account national conditions and legislation. The Convention should not establish universal prescriptions when it comes to taxes, subsidies, carbon prices, sovereign debt or corporate accountability,” Edelgeriev said.
COP17 is being held under the motto “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope” during the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, which was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly at Mongolia’s initiative.
Land restoration efforts will be further detailed in the TV BRICS documentary project “Earth. Lifelines”, premiering on 26 August at COP17. Concluding the media network’s campaign supporting the UNCCD’s Silk Road Caravan initiative, the film highlights sustainable pasture management, biodiversity conservation, and responsible water use in the Russian regions of Dagestan, Kalmykia, and the Astrakhan Region.
