Livelihoods, income Food and nutrition Green growth
Investing in Sustainable Landscapes for Green Returns
Dr. Peter Holmgren, Director General CIFOR
New Delhi, 16 April 2013
Climate change Biodiversity Agriculture, resilience

100 years

What do we need to make it work?
 Understand basic objectives for sustainable landscapes
• …and how to measure progress at reasonable cost
 Understand return opportunities from landscapes
• …and the associated risks
 Commitment from public sector to implement rule of law
• …and provide (initial) support to governance, risk
management and research
 Accept that farmers and producers are in charge
• ..their priorities will lead to sustainable landscapes (or not)
 Finance that benefits large-scale investors as well as
small-scale producers
• …taking all of the above into account

Proposition 1:
This is a Sustainable Landscape.
Keep it simple!

Landscape objectives

Landscape objectives & performance measures

Important properties
• Measureable
• Easy to understand
• Applicable everywhere
• Applicable on any scale
• Relevant to
‐ Sustainable development
‐ Climate change
‐ Food security
‐ Investment / Green growth
All measures stable or improving = Sustainable Landscape

Proposition 2:
Investments in Sustainable Landscapes
can contribute dramatically
to meeting development goals

Perspectives
 Investor:
• There is a lot of capital ready for good investment
propositions that also contribute to sustainable
development
 Farmers / Producers:
• Access to long-term, affordable and reliable capital is a
major limiting factor for our enterprises
 Public sector:
• Desrire to use public funds to steer investments to
generate public goods and sustainable development

Some perceptions that hinder
 ”Land use profits are bad for the environment.”
 ”Land use profits are bad for local people.”
• ”Agrobusiness will take over.”
 ”Farmers are farmers.”
 ”Food prices must be kept down.”
 ”How can we feed the world?.”
 Sector silos

Some ideas that help
 Green growth with equity
 Need for climate change adaptation and mitigation
 Trade
 Ethical considerations in investments

Proposition 3:
It is possible.
But requires scale.

Returns and Risk management

Affordable verification
Monitoring of
sustainability
outcomes at
aggregated levels

Effective use of public funds
Strengthen governance frameworks
• Rule of law
Protection fund for investors
Piloting loans
Research

What next?
 Research and development
• CIFOR, The Munden Project, ICRAF, Ateneo
School of Government, Chatham House
 More findings on the different components during
2013
• Portfolio approach
• Sustainability verification approach
• Governance
 Piloting from 2014

Vision
CIFOR vision:
Forests (and Landscapes) on the agenda – their values recognized
Decisions that influence forests and people supported by solid
science and principles of good governance