Back from the World Forestry Congress

In this context Rio Impact participated in the WFC Private Sector Investment Forum, among other sessions on sustainable finance for nature-based solutions, and the development of a forest-based circular bioeconomy. Rio Impact representative Ludwig Liagre delivered a presentation on opportunities to increase financial flows for forest ecosystems, highlighting the importance for the finance sector to accelerate the greening of its practices while at the same time significantly raising ambitions to allocate capital to forest assets including for afforestation, reforestation and the restoration of ecosystems.

In a context of global population growth, an increased wood and non-wood forest products demand can be satisfied if the forest sector is ready to boost sustainable production of forest goods and services. It will include sustainable plantations combined with efforts for restoration and conservation.

A few key messages from the congress include :

• Finance institutions are called to unlock financing and investments for forest-based solutions.
• De-risking approaches such as blended finance models are required to boost private capital mobilization for the implementation of nature-based solutions at scale.
• The mainstreaming of a forest-based circular bioeconomy is critical to achieve low-carbon development pathways.
• Governments have to work more closely with the private sector to ensure the right set of incentives and regulations are in place to catalyse wide adoption of nature-based solutions.
• Inclusion of small farmers, indigenous people and local communities is a pre-requisite to ensure the sustainability of forest investments.

In this context, Rio Impact will continue engaging to shape a future of forest investments that are more impactful, inclusive and building on solid public private partnerships.

You can learn more about the XV World Forestry Congress here and the WFC Private Sector Investment Forum under this link.
Picture : © Pilar Valbuena