EcoAgriculture Partners has secured a grant through the Global EbA Fund to work with Conservation International to improve financial tools to help landscapes secure funding for ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) projects. The Alto Mayo Landscape in San Martin, Peru, will be a laboratory to develop tools and approaches that will be applicable throughout the world. This region is renowned for its ecological richness, which is vulnerable to climate change and has struggled to secure funding for EbA projects.
EbA harnesses the power of nature-based solutions and ecosystem services to combat climate change impacts. These kinds of projects restore essential ecosystem services while boosting people’s incomes and mitigating climate change. For example, protecting coastal habitats like mangroves provides natural flood defense and incredibly productive fish nurseries. This protects communities from inundation and increases their fishing yields.
Infographic of the Alto Mayo landscape and San Martin, Peru from a Conservation International presentation on the landscape size, demographics and biodiversity metrics.
Sara Scherr, CEO and President of EcoAgriculture Partners, said, “The investment world must fund projects contributing to an integrated landscape strategy. Doing this will connect climate change adaptation and mitigation with sustainable food production and forest management to help biodiversity thrive while strengthening community welfare. EbA projects can catalyze these efforts.”
With the Global EbA Fund’s $250,000 grant, EcoAg will convene landscape finance experts as part of the 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People (1000L) initiative, a collaboration among leading development, nature-positive finance, agricultural, environmental, technology and educational organizations, which seeks to broadly disseminate approaches to increasing the scope of finance for landscape transition at scale.
This group is advancing innovative landscape finance tools and processes that 1000L has built over the last few years. Sharing these solutions with landscape leaders everywhere will greatly benefit rural residents and communities, particularly smallholder farmers of crops like cocoa and coffee.
Aaron Bruner, Conservation International‘s Sustainable Landscapes & Seascapes Economics Fellow, said the San Martin landscape was a natural choice for this project. “San Martin is a global leader in working towards sustainable development in the context of climate change,” Bruner said. “The Global EbA Fund project will support state-of-the-art thinking about how to engage a diverse set of financiers to drive large-scale change.”
Our greatest appreciation goes to the Global EbA Fund for this opportunity and financial support. Conservation International collaborated with EcoAg to secure this grant.
