Quantifying The Multiple Environmental Benefits Of Sustainable Land Management Projects: An Analysis Of The Land Degradation Portfolio Of the Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Jean-Marc Sinnassamy et al.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is the financing mechanism of several Multilateral Agreements for the Environment. The Land Degradation (LD) Focal Area is the GEF mechanism under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for investing in Sustainable Land Management to improve or restore ecosystem services in production systems. This paper aims to make the first analysis of the Land Degradation tracking tools submitted with the GEF projects over the fifth replenishment (GEF5, 2006-2010). The Land Degradation Focal Area tracking tools were defined to capture the necessary data and information during project design and implementation to 1) Demonstrate GEF?s catalytic role as a strategic partner for implementing/up-scaling SLM, 2) Monitor Global Environment Benefits from GEF investments in production systems, including multi-focal area synergies involving biodiversity, international waters, and climate change, 3) Report effectively and reliably on GEF financing for implementation of the UNCCD by Parties, and 4) Enhance portfolio level management and accountability for the Land Degradation Focal Area. We used the available data from 117 LD and LD/Multi-Focal Area projects tracking tools to assess these initial questions. These 117 projects represent an investment of $504 million and more than three billion US dollars in cofinancing. These investments show that each dollar from the GEF was able to leverage 6 dollars of cofinancing from various sources. These projects will include direct interventions on more than 50 million of ha of production landscapes benefiting to approximately 40 million of rural people, including 25 million of poor, half of whom are women. The average LD project amount is $4.5 million, ranging from $2.6 million for LD stand-alone projects to the double, $5.2 million, for Multi-Focal Area projects (MFA).
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