Unlocking National Opportunities: New Insights on Financing Sustainable Forest and Land Management

This publication offers a guidance on SFM and SLM Financing Strategy and outlines a six-step process for mobilizing financial resources for sustainable forest management (SFM) and sustainable land management (SLM). It draws on experiences in more than 80 countries and includes case studies from Guatemala, Jordan, Peru and Zambia to illustrate its findings.
The brochure finds that there is more in-country money for SFM and SLM than is typically accessed, especially when considering private investments and informal financing. As such, the main challenge is in building the capacity to access and make efficient use of existing resources. This capacity can be built through enabling investments in governance, institutional and local capacity, the brochure argues. The brochure also highlights the need to strengthen links between financial institutions and the forest and land sectors, in order to build trust and facilitate the mobilization of domestic financial resources. On other barriers to SFM and SLM financing, the publication identifies unclear use rights, other legal barriers, and lack of political support. It identifies concrete steps to unlock financing at the national level.

The brochure was co-authored by FAO, Tropenbos International, the Global Mechanism (GM) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the National Forest Programme (NFP) Facility, and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) with financial support of the Government of the Netherlands.