Songdo, Republic of Korea/Rome - The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has approved two new projects valued at $184.8 million to bolster sustainable forest management, land restoration and climate-resilient development in Algeria and Mexico with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The announcements were made today during the forty-sixth meeting of the GCF Board (B.46) in Songdo, Republic of Korea.
Both Algeria and Mexico have made great strides in taking climate action with and through their agricultural sectors. Now, with support from FAO and GCF, the countries will ramp up their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance climate resilience and ensure food security for rural communities.
"FAO is committed to continue supporting Algeria and Mexico in transforming their agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable. Let us continue to work together to strengthen our partnership that brings together FAO's technical expertise and strong government commitment for effective, efficient and coherent climate action that benefits rural communities and the ecosystems they depend on for their food security and wellbeing," said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.
"These new investments demonstrate how GCF is backing national climate ambition with investment, delivering impact where it is needed most. In Algeria, GCF's first project in the country will support a shift to integrated, climate-resilient landscapes across six provinces, home to more than half of the country's nomadic population. With the government financing 57 percent of the investment, the project shows how country ownership can drive ecosystem restoration and stronger rural livelihoods," said Amer Baig, GCF Chief Investment Officer. "In Mexico, we are recognizing about 13 million tonnes of emissions reductions already achieved and reinvesting the proceeds to protect forests and support sustainable livestock practices. It's about rewarding results while tackling the root causes of deforestation," he added.
Algeria: Restoration fights desertification
For over half a century, Algeria has been stepping up efforts to combat desertification and protect steppe and rangelands from land degradation. In 1971, Algeria launched the ambitious Green Dam (Barrage Vert) initiative, an ecological belt stretching approximately 1,500 km across the country's pre-Saharan steppe to combat desertification and land degradation.
Now, the Government is partnering with FAO on the country's first GCF-funded climate initiative that will build on the Green Dam project by strengthening the resilience of ecosystems and livelihoods across 454,138 hectares in six provinces.
The seven-year initiative, Improving Climate Resilience in the Steppe and Dry Forest Areas of the Algerian Green Dam, will reach more than one million people, and directly support more than 142,000 farmers, herders and pastoralists (over a third of whom are women) living in these arid and semi-arid areas.
Rural communities will benefit from the restoration of over 59,000 hectares of degraded landscapes, including forests, rangelands, dunes and agricultural land. Isolated rural and agro-pastoral households will also gain access to clean energy with the installation of 190 solar energy kits for refrigeration, processing and other productive uses. Two hundred and forty hydroponic forage units will also provide year-round feed for over 25,000 livestock.
The project will also facilitate rural people's access to financing for rural micro-enterprises - at least half of them women-led - and promote climate-resilient value chains for opuntia (prickly pear cactus), olive, rosemary, wool, alfa (esparto grass) and peppermint.
Together, these actions are expected to reduce or sequester 540,355 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) by the end of the project, and more than 1.8 million tCO2e over its lifetime.
The GCF's $43 million grant will allow Algeria to boost climate investments in areas where commercial financing is unavailable, specifically in actions that build climate resilience while benefitting communities and the environment. The Government's $56.5 million co-financing contribution is a testament to Algeria's commitment to investing in climate solutions that benefit people and the environment.
As the Accredited Entity, FAO will provide overall technical, financial and administrative oversight, while FAO Algeria and Algeria's General Directorate of Forests will together serve as the Executing Entities, providing technical expertise while helping strengthen national and local capacities for long-term sustainability.
"With support from GCF and FAO, this project will constitute a substantial contribution to the integrated relaunch of the Algeria Green Dam that reconciles biodiversity, economic resilience of local populations and adaptation to climate change. Based on the Algerian experience initiated in the 70s, the project will contribute to Algerian efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and combat desertification," said Sid Ali Khaldi, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries of Algeria.
Mexico: Halting deforestation leads to results
In Mexico, 11.8 million people depend on the country's forests for their livelihoods. But the practice of converting forests into pasture for cattle ranching is one of the major drivers of deforestation in the country, particularly in certain forested regions. At the same time, droughts, forest fires, pests and degraded pasturelands threaten the resilience of livestock landscapes.
For more than a decade, the Government has been ramping up its efforts to tackle deforestation and forest degradation through its National REDD+ Strategy (ENAREDD+). Through successful policies, investment, and technical support, the country achieved 12,915,671 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) in REDD+ emission reductions from 2018 to 2019.
In recognition of these achievements, GCF has approved an $85.3 million REDD+ results-based payment project for Mexico that will boost investment in forest conservation and sustainable livestock production.
The payments for past emission reductions will help livestock producers restore degraded pasturelands and adopt more sustainable production practices, such as silvopastoral systems, which integrate pastures, fodder trees or shrubs with livestock management to boost productivity and resilience.
The project will also help set up 1,200 farmer field schools (FFS), support forest conservation and sustainable management across 205,000 hectares through Payments for Environmental Services (PES), finance 120 women-led productive initiatives and improve access to sustainable finance.
These actions, and others, will reach more than 33,000 people, including Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Mexicans and local communities, and generate an estimated 262,801 tCO2e in additional emission reductions by 2032.
"This initiative is based on a fundamental reality: tropical dry forests make a decisive contribution to livestock production through grazing and the use of forage resources. Therefore, their conservation and proper management are essential both for climate action and for the well-being of thousands of small-scale rural producers," said the Director General of Mexico's National Forestry Commission, Sergio Graf.
This project is the first of its kind to be approved under the GCF's new policy for results-based payments, signalling future financing opportunities for countries tackling deforestation and forest degradation. For Mexico, this GCF grant will advance its ambition to achieve zero net deforestation by 2030.
FAO will serve as both Accredited Entity and co-implementing partner for the project which will be implemented over six years in collaboration with Mexico's National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR).
CONAFOR will channel GCF funding to eligible communities and producers to support forest conservation and sustainable land management across forest-grassland transition landscapes in Mexico.
About the FAO-GCF Partnership
FAO accelerates countries' access to climate finance for adaptation and mitigation projects in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors through its long-standing partnership with GCF.
With these latest approvals, FAO's nearly $2.2 billion GCF portfolio now serves over 65 million people in over 100 countries.
