Seed-funding for Impact: Catalyzing private investments in ecological restoration

Seed-funding for Impact: Catalyzing private investments in ecological restoration

2021 - 2023

Partner

WeForest

Programme

WeForest develops holistic and multi-stakeholder reforestation projects through a Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) approach. They work with local communities to protect old forests and grow forests around them to halt global warming and conserve biodiversity, as well as helping to lift people out of poverty. WeForest has a scientific approach to FLR and collaborates with universities and research institutes to strengthen its reforestation strategy through applied research.

WeForest’s projects, from Ethiopia to Brazil, cover a range of restoration methods including assisted natural regeneration, enrichment planting and agroforestry, selected based on the local ecosystem type as well as the main drivers of degradation. Through “the seed-funding for impact” program, we have successfully supported WeForest with seed funding to boost their project pipeline which has resulted in four new fully scoped restoration projects and for one project corporate funding has already been secured.

Achievements

We have supported WeForest with 3 additional staff positions which enabled them to develop a new framework for their project development and approval. The screening and scoping of projects helped them to identify the most successful approach for programs to expand in countries where they already are working. WeForest has fully scoped four new projects (double what was expected), producing well-designed and feasible project proposals that are ready for launch. These projects are located in Tanzania (Butiama Hills in the Mara Region and Tanzania Mahale Mountains inside the Greater Mahale Ecosystem), Malawi (Mount Mulanje) and Ethiopia (Wof Washa forest in the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot).