INVESTING IN TREES AND LANDSCAPE ... - PROFOR

dollars. Climate finance is supporting investment in sustainable land management. REDD-plus faststart
funds are supporting investments to reduce deforestation, while many African countries are in
the process of designing Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) and National Adaptation
Programme of Action (NAPA) projects that will use sustainable land management (SLM) to promote
climate-friendly, climate-resilient agriculture and land use at scale.
Private Sector Initiatives
The role of private sector investment in these initiatives and the potential of private finance to
fund the restoration process have not been systematically evaluated. But the contribution is
significant and growing. In response to market incentives and subsistence requirements, millions
of farmer and community-based organizations are undertaking independent investment efforts:
reforesting hillsides, planting trees on farms, and improving soil management. Their aggregate
efforts are achieving land cover effects at scale. Private agribusiness investors and companies along
agricultural and forest supply chains are pursuing opportunities to profit from tree- and forest-based
enterprises. Some are finding ways to access large areas of land; others are engaging large numbers
of smallholder farmers or forest communities. Integrated agribusiness development corridors being
promoted through public-private partnerships in breadbasket regions are incorporating elements
to “green” land management. Private developers are pursuing climate change mitigation projects.
While Africa-wide data on tree crop and forest investment are sparse, the International Finance
Corporation (IFC) loan portfolio illustrates interest from private business. IFC’s annual tree-based
agricultural investments increased from about $300 million in the early 2000s to $2 billion in 2009
and 2010. Examples include the Salala Rubber Company in Liberia; Ghana Oil Palm Development
Company (a palm oil plantation in Ghana); Karsten (a tree fruit processing company in South
Africa); Kongoni River Farms (a horticulture and flower production and export company in Kenya);
and coffee farmer cooperatives in Ethiopia. Since 2004, IFC has invested about $1.13 billion in the
forestry sector, including energy-saving initiatives (for example, substituting waste biomass from
sawmills for the use of fuel oil in Tanzania); reforestation/afforestation in Uganda and Mozambique;
and forest product manufacturing companies in Ghana, South Africa, and Mozambique. Billions
of dollars in foreign direct investment in agriculture and forestry are entering Africa; although most
investment is landscape-degrading, the potential exists to include practices that support landscape
restoration.
Linking Public and Private Sector Investment
The six boxes in this chapter present examples of landscape-scale action in response to diverse
drivers, encompassing diverse investment activities. Government-led restoration efforts in the Kagera
River Basin in Tanzania (box 2.1) are engaging all sectors in a multifaceted strategy. In the Ethiopian
highlands (box 2.3) and the southern savannas of Niger (box 2.6), large-scale landscape restoration
was led by farmers and community organizations, with modest support from governments and
NGOs, and limited nonfarm private investment. Private companies and investors played an important
supporting role in smallholder agricultural landscapes in southern Zambia (box 2.2), and a leading
role in restoring smallholder agroforestry landscapes in Embu, Kenya (box 2.4), and tea landscapes
in Kericho (box 2.5).
48 INVESTING IN TREES AND LANDSCAPE RESTORATION IN AFRICA