A regional partnership seeking to advance nature conservation efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean has drafted a new strategy to meet the ambitious goal of protecting and restoring 50 million hectares of land by 2030.
The Initiative 20×20 brings together over 18 governments, 32 private investors, and 136 organisations, including the World Resources Institute (WRI), which leads the partnership’s secretariat and contributed to drawing up the updated strategy and priorities for the next two years.
The plan identified four key areas – public policies, private financing, knowledge enhancement, and social equity – stressing the need to scale resource mobilisation in order to hasten restoration activities in the lead-up to the 2030 deadline.
Currently, more than 7 mln ha of degraded land is under restoration in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the initiative, which was launched formally at the COP20 UN climate summit in Lima, Peru in 2014, with an initial target of restoring 20 mln ha by 2020.
The partnership counts among its members Colombia-based project developer Terrasos, an early mover in the biodiversity market that generates credits through a series of habitat banks, as well as French investor Mirova and non-profit Rainforest Alliance, which have recently partnered to scale up nature-based solutions.
UNLOCKING FINANCING
Under the updated strategy, the initiative intends to boost funding both from governments – through unlocking public incentives – and private investors, identifying innovative business models over the next two years, and then helping to scale them up between 2026 and 2028.
Notably, the document suggests prioritising investments in secondary forests, while also supporting conservation and restoration activities in agricultural areas through agroforestry, silvopasture, sustainable grassland management, and other low-carbon farming techniques.
Another key focus area will be on improving biodiversity monitoring across the region, said the strategy drafted by WRI researchers.
Forests cover 23% of land in Latin America and the Caribbean, and host approximately 60% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity.
“Despite their importance, 20% of forest lands are badly degraded, and another 20% are completely deforested,” WRI said.
“Over 650 mln ha of landscapes are damaged in the region, threatening the communities and nations that rely on them.”
The region has lost 138 mln ha of tree cover since 1990, according to WRI, though deforestation rates in some of the most biodiversity-rich countries in the region have slowed down in recent months.
In April, a report by the organisation’s Global Forest Watch project showed that last year, deforestation in Colombia and Brazil dropped by 49% and 36% compared to 2022, respectively.
However, critical biomes in Latin America, such as Brazil’s Cerrado, face increasing threats, mainly due to land use changes.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
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