The role of public finance in advancing holistic landscape restoration

“Landscape initiatives are critical to the transformation of the way we use our land, not only to extract precious resources, but also to regenerate soils, biodiversity and livelihoods, and to address climate change in a systemic way,” says Daniel Zimmer, Director of Sustainable Land Use at EIT Climate-KIC.

Zimmer participated in a recent report published by Commonland that details how EU financing of developmental projects should redirect funds to holistic landscape restoration projects focused on the inherent connection between people and nature.

The report, co-authored by a coalition of 19 environmental organisations including EIT Climate-KIC, the World Resource Institute, Gold Standard, The Nature Conservancy, Rainforest Alliance, and Commonland, focuses on the application of an investment concept called “Landscape Finance.” This financing approach supports a holistic perspective in infrastructure investments to aid in the implementation of initiatives such as those laid out in the EU Nature Restoration Law, adopted by the EU Commission in June 2022.

Combining grey and green infrastructure

The approach considers, among other recommendations, a re-evaluation of traditional ‘grey infrastructure’ investments, which already amassed a significant amount of EU-level funding — €97 billion for roads, railways, inland waterways, maritime ports, airports, and €27 billion on existing transport infrastructure.  

Landscape Finance aims to combine grey infrastructure with ‘green,’ otherwise known as natural infrastructure. This could mean combining mangroves or salt marshes as coastal defences (green or natural infrastructure) with concrete seawalls and dykes (grey infrastructure), for example. The combination of the two provides not only financial returns but also returns on the social and environmental well-being of the communities where it is applied. Further, the combined infrastructure approach is more climate-resilient and cost-effective than grey infrastructure alone.

Blending different finance sources to de-risk climate investment

The report lays out how Landscape Finance as a framework can provide a solid platform that enables the development and scaling of restoration activities and drives down risks for investors. Taken together, the activities and funding of a landscape partnership, ecosystem restoration, and early-stage businesses can form a foundation that enables the mobilisation of private investment capital to scale activities to the landscape level. These core elements create an environment with aligned stakeholders, reduced business and investor risks and investable restoration activities.  

Highlights: 

• As Landscape Finance addresses key finance barriers to investing in green infrastructure, it is an effective way to finance nature restoration. 
• In Europe, the restoration of biodiversity-rich land protected under the Habitats Directive is estimated to cost €154 billion but generates benefits valued at €1,860 billion, resulting in a cost-benefit ratio of 1:12.3. Landscape restoration investments are often compared to traditional agriculture investments but have more in common with infrastructure investments. 
• Economic studies show that the financial benefits of restoration are on average 8-10 times greater than the initial investment costs across all types of ecosystems. These include benefits like enhanced food production, carbon sequestration, and storage, as well as improved water quality and cycles.   

A clear pathway forward for restoring Europe’s landscapes

Long-term financing for large-scale nature restoration in Europe is possible and within sight. This report provides key policy recommendations to create an enabling environment for holistic landscape restoration, offering a clear pathway towards the development of large-scale landscape finance structures to advance holistic landscape restoration across the continent. 

These policy recommendations include: 

• Landscapes and landscape partnerships need to be recognised in policy frameworks for transformative change and multiple targets. 
• Public finance can play a crucial and catalytic role in advancing holistic landscape restoration. 
• Within holistic landscape restoration, infrastructure investments should adopt a long-term holistic perspective, incorporating the restoration of green infrastructure to enhance climate resilience. 

Join us on Friday, 8th December 2023, 16:45 GST for a COP28 side event on Financing large-scale holistic landscape restoration (Blue Zone, EU Pavilion). Speakers include Daniel Zimmer (Director of Sustainable Land Use, EIT Climate-KIC), Victoria Gutierrez (Head of Global Policy, Commonland), Sara Scherr (CEO of EcoAgriculture Partners, Chair of 1000 Landscapes) and Juan Carlos Ramos (Senior Manager for Finance and Policy, EcoAgriculture Partners, 1000 Landscapes).

More information on our COP28 events: EIT Climate-KIC at COP28 – Climate-KIC