This article is brought to you by the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program.
The climate crisis and land degradation are putting the future of food under threat – at a time when there are more mouths to feed than ever before.
The Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Program (FOLUR), a $345 million, seven-year program led by the World Bank, is building sustainable value chains for eight major commodities and food staples across the globe: cocoa, coffee, livestock, maize, palm oil, rice, soy and wheat.
But what does this actually look like in practice?
During a recent GLF Live, we looked back on what FOLUR has achieved and its goals for 2025.
The live-streamed conversation featured Christopher Brett, FOLUR program lead and lead agribusiness specialist at the World Bank and Dinara Akhmetova, FOLUR program lead and Global Environment Department (SENGL), Planet Vice Presidency, senior natural resource management specialist at the World Bank. The conversation was moderated by Peter Umunay, Food Systems and Land Use Lead and Senior Environmental Specialist at the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Together, they discussed how FOLUR country projects are transforming the environmental footprint of agriculture and how to unite stakeholders at the local and international levels to boost livelihoods and safeguard landscapes.
Read some takeaways from the conversation, or rewatch the full live stream.
Brett: Together, with our many partners, we’re working to build their knowledge and take that opportunity to drive change within the 27 FOLUR projects.
The 27 projects are all standalone, individual projects within their respective countries. Each project is evolving at a different speed.
What is important is that we align with each country’s implementing agency to establish a project management unit made of the GEF representatives, government representatives and those at the country level.
With the International Finance Corporation (IFC), our partner in private-sector development and investment, we’ve leveraged USD 507 million of investment within these commodities over the last year.
This is an example of what we do and how we do it, and today, we’re only about 40 or 45 percent of the way into the program.
Akhmetova: FOLUR has intensified its focus on restoration, really putting focus on the “R” in its name, by scaling co-financing opportunities and embedding FOLUR principles in the country projects.
Over the past year, one of its standout achievements has been the advancement of restoration efforts through the ‘FOLURization’ initiative.
FOLUR has offered to provide technical assistance to the World Bank country projects within the global department for agriculture and food and the global department for the environment, as well as with other forward partners. This approach has expanded the program’s reach.
We embed FOLUR principles into the World Bank projects. We have early adopters in countries such as Ethiopia and Uganda, illustrating how we align national projects with FOLUR principles to deliver transformational impact.
Brett: The COP agendas are important because they help align us as international institutions and organizations. The COPs bring positive dialogues, but they also challenge the lack of investment.
We’re privileged to work with the World Resources Institute (WRI), which provides strong environmental data with the Global Forest Watch.
We’ve also started advising the countries we work with. We still have a lot to do to ensure governments and farmers are included in voluntary markets.
Akhmetova: Land restoration is critical to achieving land degradation neutrality and building climate resilience. The United Nations Conference Climate Change Conference (COP29) emphasized that deforestation remains a critical driver of biodiversity and climate change.
The world loses approximately 10 million hectares of forest annually, and deforestation adds up to almost 11 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The studies I heard presented at COP29 found that every dollar invested in restoration yields almost USD 9 in economic benefits.
I hope restoration work will lead to commitments made at the Biodiversity COP16 to achieve the 30×30 target goal of protecting 30 percent of global land and oceans by 2030.
It is also important to mention that project approaches should focus on smallholders, women, local communities and Indigenous Peoples. Inclusivity needs to remain at the heart of restoration efforts.
Brett: We’re very much focused on the policy agenda. We ensure governments are working on proactive policies to enable public and private investments.
We want to make sure we have regulations and rules for protecting forests and landscapes while encouraging investments in those landscapes.
We also have an important role in investments across public and private partnerships. We learn how to work with the private sector to transfer that strategic learning down to the country level.
Akhmetova: In 2025, we will focus on knowledge exchange management and capacity building.
FOLUR will continue serving as a hub for sharing best practices and lessons learned, building off various country dialogues. Scaling up country-level intervention will be a top priority.
I’m really interested in reaching the goal of restoring at least 100,000 hectares and improving practices and over 1 million hectares by the end of 2025 through FOLUR-ization and capacity building work.
Finally…
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