The Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) Working Group will deliver an intensive training session on financing AFOLU at the LEDS GP Annual Event from 14-16 October. Adelaine Tan of the Working Group Secretariat, outlines what to expect from the session.

The AFOLU Working Group serves as a platform for engaging decision makers, practitioners and researchers while working towards integrating low emissions development activities in the AFOLU sector. The goal of the Working Group is “to promote and facilitate information, knowledge sharing and adoption for tools and solutions for climate-resilient, low emission development across the agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors.”  The AFOLU Working Group’s main priority area is to promote a community of practice in AFOLU LEDS on two technical themes: low emission land use planning (LELUP), and leveraging finance for LEDS in the AFOLU sector.

The AFOLU Working Group is offering a 2-hour training session during the Annual Event, being held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic from 14-16 October, on how to access climate finance for AFOLU low emission development strategies. The training will provide means and options for leveraging finance for AFOLU-related LEDS and will contribute to one of the key areas of the annual event: financing LEDS.

Financing LEDS in the AFOLU sector:

Financing Low Emissions Development Strategies (LEDS) in the AFOLU sector faces unique challenges due to the perceived risk in AFOLU emissions reduction projects and current lack of accounting and investment frameworks and widely accepted standards. In relation, a significant gap exists between the supply of financing for climate change mitigation at the international level and demand from national and sub-national levels. For example, while an estimated US$6.5 billion has been pledged for REDD+, between 2007 and 2012 only US$486 million, or less than 10% of the total, was disbursed.

In addition to national-level LEDS, there are many subnational investments in the region aimed at developing and implementing sustainable land management strategies. AFOLU LEDS at all levels commonly include elements contributing to climate change mitigation and activities aimed at maintaining or building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

While high-level policy provides the foundation for designing and implementing AFOLU LEDS, capacity and knowledge are limited while land management is complex and administrative and monitoring requirements are high. Institutional divisions also continue to run deep in the AFOLU sector with forestry and agricultural mitigation strategies often poorly harmonized. Increasing population pressures and food demands, combined with a degrading land base, economic and access inequity and changing climate patterns, further raise the complexity of the task.

The training session

The session encompasses:

• A brief introduction to the Working Group’s activities and technical assistance offered,
• Case studies on AFOLU LEDS finance from different regions by country representatives, and
• Table discussions on the access to funding for real AFOLU LEDS projects identified by the participants.

The training is designed to be intense and hands-on with theoretical and practical exercises. There will be presentation of case studies and discussion on how to access climate finance for AFOLU LEDS. Participants will learn to review financing options and seek and select types of finance for their projects. Participants are also able to share and tap into the experience and examples from other countries.