Climate-friendly land use in Colombia

The Colombian President Santos and the World Bank signed a grant for an innovative climate protection programme of the BioCarbon Fund for the Orinoquía region in Colombia.

In early March, Colombia's president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Juan Manuel Santos, signed the agreement with the World Bank for the Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL) of the BioCarbon Fund. This initiative supports the Orinoquía region in eastern Colombia through a sustainable integrated land use programme. The programme aims to harmonise the interests of economic development with climate protection.

The funding of 20 million US Dollar will be used for sustainable and strategic land use planning, the protection of ecosystems and technical support for the conversion to sustainable and simultaneously competitive palm oil, livestock, and forestry businesses. Most of the funding comes from the German Environment Ministry’s (BMU) contribution to the BioCarbon Funds. Once these efforts lead to verifiable emission reductions, the BioCarbon Fund - ISFL will make results-based payments of up to 50 million US Dollar available. The World Bank's BioCarbon ISFL programme is funded by the BMU with a total of 35 million euros.

The Orinoquía covers an area of 25 million hectares of savannah and wetland, containing high levels of biodiversity. In recent decades, the creation of agricultural land has led to extensive land conversion, with large areas of forest being cleared and wetlands drained. This has devastating consequences not only for nature, but also for climate protection.

Further information: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2018/03/16/el-enfoque-de-la-agricultura-climaticamente-inteligente-la-ultima-frontera-agropecuaria-de-colombia