Objectives

To establish the institutional and technical infrastructure in Turkiye to achieve integrated natural resource management (INRM) in regions with very humid climate through demonstration of SLM techniques that blend the new global approaches and traditional knowledge in Eastern Black Sea region of Turkiye.

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

The socio-economic benefits in the project will be observed at the individual (household level) as well as at the collective community level for economic groups like farmers and forest dependents as follows: ? At least 1,000 people living, in and around the Kirechane micro-basin will directly benefit through improved tea plantation and SLM practices, forest resource use, sustainable agriculture, diversified livelihood improvements and improved ecosystem services. ? At least 20,000 persons indirectly benefiting from GEF investment (at least 50% women), including farmers receiving training and extension services by ÇAYKUR and forest management plans updated to provide for community use of forest products ? Improved conservation of forested areas and watersheds, wetlands, community production areas practices will enhance the ecological value of the ecosystems for community benefits. ? Implementation of strategies and mainstreaming of sustainable resource use via the community organizations will result into sustainable practices in agriculture, forestry and community managed areas and f value chain products and services. This will collectively result in better conservation and livelihoods outcomes; ? Improved access to basic goods and technical services, technology and improved agriculture and forestry practices as well as diversification of livelihoods will ensure more livelihood options and better prices and income. ? The focus on addressing gender inequality wherein various initiatives, such as promotion of alternative livelihood options, participation of women in various local conservation committees are proposed. The project envisages more gender equality in context of sex ratio, decision making powers, ownership and control on marine sources and women leadership as well as participation; ? A reduction in the resource use conflicts and increase in effective implementation of sustainable agricultural and forestry resource use practices. ? Incremental funding through sustainable resource management measures will protect critical biodiversity and provide for improved and diversified livelihoods and incomes and a sustainability of such investments beyond the life of the project; ? Stable or improved populations of native species and improved environments will greatly enhance visitor experiences for increasing potential for community financial benefit. Reduction in erosion and land degradation will help mitigate current loss of community productive assets

Objectives

To promote land degradation neutrality, restore and improve the use of land and water resources in Armenia’s Lake Sevan Basin to enhance the sustainability and resilience of livelihoods, biodiversity and globally significant ecosystems.

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

The envisaged benefits to local and national stakeholders will be interconnected with the aggregated environmental benefits enabled by the project’s features: (i) embedded integrated benefits and synergies across focal areas, (ii) mechanisms for integrated decision making and (iii) landscape-scale designed interventions. The project incentivizes local actors away from destructive behaviour through engaging them in biodiversity friendly livelihoods around protected areas, KBAs/IBAs, enlisting community support for safe wildlife migration corridors. The project will support gender equality and women’s empowerment, through inclusion in decision-making processes on natural resource management, delivery of capacity building on improving financial management skills, and disseminating information on available financing options for local community organizations, helping to enhance small-scale entrepreneurship, with a particular emphasis on engaging women-led community-based organizations and local enterprises. Project activities will emphasise priority inclusion of women, youth, persons with disabilities, war refugees, and other vulnerable groups.Livelihood benefits will be generated for local households through increased soil productivity, soil and water conservation, access to low-value grant assistance for interventions on biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, and through access to capacity building on sustainable nature-positive LDN complaint agricultural practices, best practices in ecotourism, biodiversity conservation, and alternative livelihoods. Awareness, technical knowledge and access to financing are key to ensuring that stakeholders will be able to adopt innovative, environmental-friendly practices. Approximately 65,800 people stand to benefit directly from various project’s interventions. The project aims at increasing capacity of 200 public sector employees and 100 PAs staff who will be participating in training activities . PA staff will have an increased knowledge and capacity for biodiversity management and environmental law enforcement. The local authorities will be supported/coached to writing eligible proposals under existing state-programmes in order to leverage additional funding for sustainable pastures and livestock management, improved water infrastructure of remote pastures, local rural development and market access and refurbishment of irrigation infrastructure with financing from available national and local financing programmes. In the same vein, the local natural resource users will be trained and supported to attract additional funding to implement SLM measures. Local tourism entrepreneurs will be trained and supported to implement eco-tourism activities. About 200 of local producers/farmers will benefit from micro-grants and an estimated income increase of at least 20% as a result of the implemented SLM measures. This is a conservative percentage, as income generation from recommended SLM measures will likely provide more benefits: e.g. according to past donor-supported projects[1], application of rotational grazing alone can provide an estimated net profit of up to $16 per sheep (after subtracting the costs per sheep of about $8). In general relatively limited investment sin the irrigation infrastructure has proven economically profitable, for example: repair of small reservoirs could increase water availability and support expansion of cultivation areas (that previously were not suitable); the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is 227% and the payback period is 1 year; the repair and lining of water storage basin reduces water losses and leads to increased water supply. The IRR is 15% and payback period is 8 years; construction of drip irrigation systems incrases with approximately 40-50% the fruit and vegetable yields and the IRR is 29% and payback period approximately 5 years. Approximately 58,800 local farmers will benefit from the refurbishment of irrigation systems on demonstration plots in selected villages, demonstrative drip irrigation systems, rainwater harvesting facilities, in the selected in the villages, which are currently struggling with a higher degree of land degradation and poor livelihoods. The generated experience is replicable at the Sevan basin landscape level, particularly through the guidelines, manuals, land use planning tools in particular the LUP4LDN software, demonstrates experiences at local level, aided by the awareness events and radio/TV talk shows. Through the awareness events and dedicated radio and TV shows that are being listened to by a large number of local community members, it is possible that number of beneficiaries of the project will be much larger. Improved awareness and technical knowledge, and assistance to access available funding, will result in improved livelihoods resilience leading to reduced economic losses associated with water scarcity, and greater agricultural productivity, increased revenues and employment prospects and diversification of income sources. The project’s micro-grant scheme (aligned with UNDP low-value grants procedures) include gender sensitive and inclusive criteria that will prioritise mid and small farmers and vulnerable families, including women, youth and vulnerable people thus prioritising support to the most vulnerable from environment and social perspective. Greater resilience will result in reduction in economic losses associated with climate shocks. At national level, the estimated annual economic losses in the agriculture sector driven by drought, hail, floods, spring frosts and mudflows has been estimated at about 15-30 billion AMD for the recent years.[2]Cost benefit analysis will be undertaken for individual investments to be made on demonstration plots. Due to the planned awareness and training events and due to the regional LDN Targets and enabling policies that the country is developing (under similar donor funded projects such as FAO) there is a good prospective potential for scaling up sustainable land management measures and integrated LDN compliant integrated and spatial land use planning at the level of the entire Lake Sevan basin. [1] Based on examples recorded in UNCCD/WOCAT database and examples use in feasibility analysis under AF funded projects in the region. [2] Fourth National Communication to UNFCCC

Objectives

To foster a coherent policy environment and track progress towards achieving the national LDN targets.

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

16.00 Normal 0 false false false en-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} This project will contribute to a paradigm shift towards low carbon and resilient development. Thus, global environment benefits (GEBs) of this project include carbon sequestration and climate regulation as a result of land rehabilitation, land restoration, improvement of government policies as well as access to education and information regarding land degradation. The generation of these GEBs will be supported by several socio-economic benefits that will be delivered both at national and local level by this GEF-FAO-UNEP proposal. At national level, this project will, in the first place, strengthen the development of policies and measures to address the issue of LDN contributing to the achievement of UNCCD National Action Programme as well. Outcome 1.1 ensures that the legal and policy framework is reinforced. The increase of land productivity and yields at smallholder level will also lead to the overall boost of production in the agriculture, agroforestry and land-use change sectors. At local level, the project will indirectly support poverty reduction and increased food security as a result of smallholders’ income raise. Secondly, SLM demonstration activities under Output 1.2.2 will bring about carbon benefits in four pilot areas through land restoration.

Objectives

To safeguard key threatened and iconic wildlife in China through cross-sectoral engagement, community participation and innovative management technologies across landscapes.

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

The durability of integrated landscape management approaches and innovative tools in key endangered wildlife habitats restoration interventions demonstrated in the project and upscaling will largely depend on sustained involvement and generation of livelihood benefits for local communities. The estimated project direct beneficiaries include 2,000 local farmers, of whom 40% are women. These people from the local communities will benefit directly through strengthened and expanded sustainable livelihood initiatives. Engagement and generation of socioeconomic benefits for women and men from the local communities is an important aspect of the integrated landscape approach in the project design. The viability of the wildlife habitats and ecological corridor restoration approaches demonstrated on the project over the long-term will largely depend on sustained involvement of local communities and flow of sustainable livelihood benefits. The project will provide opportunities for local people to be involved in capacity building activities aimed at strengthening their existing or introducing new close-to-nature livelihood models, including joint management of natural resources, organic farming, ecotourism, certification schemes and alternative livelihood cooperatives, etc. Under the current conditions in China, one of the biggest barriers hindering economic prosperity in rural area is that farmers, especially women and ethnic minority farmers often have limited access to green supply chains, lack financial management skills, and are uninformed of real-time market information and of partnership opportunities. By facilitating linkages to local cooperatives and women’s groups and ecologically conscious private enterprises which are closer to the marketplace, the prospects of their income generation capabilities and assets accumulation will be substantially improved. Apart from these monetary gains, i.e., increased financial capital, the local direct beneficiaries will gain non-monetary benefits. Joint management of natural resources and improved nature conservation are expected to restore ecosystem functions and services, resulting in improved land productivity, water quality, climate regulation services, erosion control capabilities, etc. These improvements will generate increased nature capital of the local communities. Significant gains in human capital are also expected through the project interventions. For example, local communities will benefit from knowledge achieved through skills trainings, learning-by-doing, financial management training, etc. The institutional level direct beneficiaries, including 500 people at the national and provincial level and 1,500 conservation workers and natural reserve managers and professionals at the landscape level, will also increase knowledge and hands-on experience. Strengthened institutional capacities will help ensure sustainability of the results achieved during the project and upscaling of the demonstrated interventions in other regions in the country. The cumulative monetary and non-monetary benefits will strengthen the resilience of local communities with respect to the expected impacts of climate change, e.g., restored and protected ecosystem functions and services, and also in regard to socioeconomic disruptions, e.g., diversified income opportunities will allow local households to cope with possible market fluctuations or supply chain interruptions, such as those that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the project strategy emphasizes the need to strengthen social capital in the target landscapes, through establishment of multi-stakeholder, nature reserve and community joint management models to wildlife and nature conservation, which will provide local people, including women and ethnic minorities an opportunity to actively participate in the decision-making processes regarding sustainable management of natural resources in their communities. The project will also facilitate enhanced social networking, e.g., cooperatives, micro-enterprises, in partnership with governmental entities, NGOs, and private sector players, e.g., through insertion of local farmers into green value chains, In addition, the citizen science events planned will also attract tens of thousands of young students and general public to participate in the drive of nature conservation and wildlife protection. The project is relevant to a number of SDGs, most notably SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 15 (Life on Land), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), as outlined below in Table 6 of the Project Document.

Objectives

Boosting investor interest to increase capital flows towards forest restoration and deforestation-free agriculture.

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

1. The benefits of this projects can be framed as follows: · First of all, through this project, a number of finance institutions are expected to make commitments to shift the way they finance clients in the forestry / agricultural sectors by not only focusing on ‘avoiding harm’ but by building in conditions that lead to positive social and environmental impacts by committing to finance deforestation-free and nature-positive soft commodity production and other forms of sustainable land use. · Secondly, the project strives to converge on a way to frame, measure and monitor impact related to the above by standardizing Key Performance Indicators, and by monitoring frameworks that are applied by impact investors, banks and institutional investors committed to shift capital towards sustainable land use. 2. By de-risking and availing more investment opportunities for SFM, SLM and sustainable agriculture, the GF4SL also aims at influencing national regulatory frameworks to facilitate a paradigm shift to internalizing environmental risks into longer-term agricultural and/or forestry strategies. The project will also impact local smallholders, as additional investment prospects also mean more chances to graduate from subsistence farming to more commercially oriented practices. By priming necessary loans to require SLM and sustainable agriculture methodologies, a ‘top-down’ paradigm shift can be accompanied by a ‘bottom-up’ approach. This will provide for additional livelihood and socio-economic opportunities and in turn positively influence the rural labor-market and reduce urban migration. 3. Additionally, nature-dependent households located near forest areas will benefit as they are usually relying on the collection of non-timber forest products to meet daily needs. As forests are degraded and these ecosystem services are negatively affected, household livelihoods are further reduced. Thus, the preservation and regeneration of sustainable landscapes has significant potential to also protect the most vulnerable and especially indigenous peoples who are even more dependent on natural resources on an everyday basis. 4. In addition to the above global strategies to yield substantive investment opportunities for deforestation-free commodities production under components 1 and 2 of the GF4SL, the project also will engage directly with producer associations, initiatives and smallholders at the local level though the global and regional learning hubs in component 3. Community-based forestry and agribusiness producer groups and enterprises are engaged/trained/empowered to better leverage their rights to forest resources and other natural resources to secure private investment in socially and environmentally sustainable projects. The project will thus increase the awareness of smallholders on the impacts of forest conversion and the often ensuing land degradation on the health of the communities living around the forest, e.g. through smoke and haze from clearing forest lands. This is aimed at supporting lasting change of behavior and decisions through improved risk assessment opportunities at local level when engaging in agricultural activities at the expense of the environment.