Making green and climate finance accessible in the Mediterranean region

Capacity building workshops for achieving Land Degradation Neutrality in Mediterranean countries.

On 4 - 7 November 2019, eighteen participants from eight Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia and Turkey) took part in a capacity-building workshop on green and climate financing at the headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in Barcelona, Spain. This is the first of a series four workshops to train participants from the Mediterranean countries on ways to understand better the role of forest and landscape restoration in the context of international agreements, and how to engage themselves in the creation of financial project proposals, customized to the needs and urgencies of their own countries.

The workshop was organized in the framework of the IKI-funded project “The Paris Agreement in action: upscaling forest and landscape restoration to achieve nationally determined contributions” led by the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism (FLRM) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO of the UN). The objective of the project is to enhance national and regional capacities and political will to successfully plan, implement and monitor large-scale programmes mainstreaming forest and landscape restoration (FLR) as a key option to achieve countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the context of the Paris Agreement. The project focuses on regions with high potential for forest and landscape restoration and provision of ecosystem services through large-scale FLR programmes, such as the Pacific Islands, the Great Green Wall and the Mediterranean Regions.

The workshop was structured in three main parts. The first part addressed the general concept of climate finance, forest and landscape restoration and Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). This was followed by a second part that expounded on the GCF project cycle, justification of funds, investment criteria, co-financing, etc. Lastly the LDN transformative projects and programmes, looking at the general concept and concrete examples from different countries of the world where the forestry sector, that was initially degraded, is now a successful business.

Additionally, the participants had the opportunity to present their experience with GCF and the LDN transformative projects and programmes, highlighting the challenges faced and successes achieved.