Local Action For Land Restoration in Africa

Six years ago, African leaders recognized that the degradation of 65 percent of the continent’s agricultural land threatens economic and environmental ruin for millions of farmers. They realized this just as the effects of climate change – lower crop yields, erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts – are making life harder for millions of farmers, herders, and city dwellers. That’s why African countries have pledged to begin restoring 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 through the AFR100 Initiative.  Thousands of local innovators are now pioneering projects and business models that show that restoration can create a prosperous, nature-positive future for the continent. Local leadership is key because communities manage nearly 70% of African land, and they know how to make thousands of ecologically and socially sustainable projects bloom. There is no equitable path toward net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 that ignores the entrepreneurs and community leaders restoring land.

Africa’s Top Restoration Enterprises and Projects

These leaders need support. That is why a group of ambitious donors has capitalized TerraFund for AFR100 to finance the top 100 African non-profit community organizations and for-profit businesses that are restoring trees to suitable African landscapes. They will provide funding of $50,000 to $500,000 in the form of grants and loans to each of these innovators.

This is the first concrete investment in the second phase of AFR100, to restore 20 million hectares by 2026 to bring an estimated $135 billion in benefits to 40 million people. By COP27 this year in Egypt, partners are looking to mobilize the first $2 billion in flexible capital and debut a new financial architecture that can facilitate investment in hundreds of organizations that support smallholder farmers.

In two short weeks, the team received applications from more than 3,200 of these organizations from 31 countries. They requested an average of $145,000 to restore 200 hectares and grow 100,000 trees each. From this group, a consortium organized by World Resources Institute, One Tree Planted, and Realize Impact selected the first cohort of 31 non-profit community organizations and for-profit small businesses that are restoring land by growing trees. On a rolling basis, the selection committee will invite 69 more organizations to join the cohort by March 2022.

Introduced at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021, the first cohort of 20 restoration champions employs a wide variety of tree-based restoration techniques, ranging from agroforestry (growing trees on farms to improve food security) to assisted natural regeneration (helping trees grow back to revitalize biodiversity). In January 2022, the second cohort of 11 organizations was officially welcomed at a webinar.

How Did We Assess Applicants?

Organization: Is the organization and project well run?

Scalability: Can it expand with more funding and reach economies of scale?

Replicability: Can its model/approach apply to other landscapes?

Environmental impact: How will it improve soil, water, carbon storage, and biodiversity?

Social impact: How will it improve the livelihoods of local communities and marginalized people?

Profitability (for enterprises): Is the business model viable?

About TerraMatch

TerraFund for AFR100 to finance the top 100 African non-profit community organizations and for-profit businesses that are restoring trees to suitable African landscapes. It will provide funding of $50,000 to $500,000 in the form of grants and loans to each of these innovators.