More than 50,000 smallholder farmers are set to benefit from an investment initiative towards a program aimed at restoring Mount Kenya landscape biodiversity.
This is after the Rainforest Alliance in Kenya and Clarmondial announce a collaboration to execute a catalytic pilot investment for the Biosphere Integrity Fund in the Mount Kenya landscape.
The transaction builds on foundational work done by the Rainforest Alliance under the Mount Kenya Sustainable Landscape and Livelihoods (MSuLLi) Program, funded by the IKEA Foundation.
This program seeks to support Mount Kenya’s farming communities to conserve and better manage their natural resources, leading to increased incomes, contribute significantly to the Kenyan economy and positive climate action.
Water reservoir
The Mount Kenya landscape, with its glacier capped peaks, is one of Kenya’s most important water reservoirs. Together with four other major “water towers,” it supplies over 75% of Kenya’s renewable surface water.
As a biodiversity hotspot, the landscape has over 700 plant species and is home to endangered and rare animals, including the black rhino and albino zebra.
The landscape also serves the local economy as an important agricultural zone where various food and cash crops are cultivated.
This has made the landscape strategically relevant for internationally recognized brands, such as leading tea, coffee, nuts, herbs, and spice companies.
The landscape and its smallholder farmers are increasingly facing challenges related to climate change, including unpredictable rainfalls and increasing costs to adapt.
While there is interest from companies and government to support the transition to more sustainable landscapes and value chains in the Mount Kenya region, funding is still insufficient.
Social and environmental impact
This pilot catalytic investment will demonstrate the potential for social and environmental impact, notably on biodiversity, climate action and women’s economic empowerment, alongside financial returns in a scalable manner.
The Clarmondial team will further evaluate layering in payments for ecosystem services, such as for carbon.
For the Rainforest Alliance, Mount Kenya is a priority landscape, and one where practices can be transformed so that communities and nature both thrive. This is a point reiterated by Julius Nganga, Senior Director for East and Southern Africa at the Rainforest Alliance:
“The Mount Kenya landscape holds immense potential for farming communities. In recent years, the Rainforest Alliance has diligently pursued an integrative landscape management approach in the region, managing its land and resources more sustainably while improving farmer livelihoods, through strategies such as scaling regenerative agriculture and land restoration. We’re excited to collaborate with Clarmondial to advance our plans, linking the landscape to additional funding. Together, we can bolster the capacity of farmers and community members across the region, fostering more vibrant, resilient and equitable rural economies.”
Financial mechanisms required
To advance these sustainability actions across landscapes, innovative financial mechanisms are required.
Herbert Hatanga, Clarmondial’s Partner for East and Southern Africa, expands: “Building on the great work the Rainforest Alliance has already done in the Mount Kenya landscape, we will support selected local actors in evaluating the business case of transitioning to better practices. Providing this pre-investment readiness support will allow the transaction to catalyze further funding that realizes sustainable benefits within the landscape. We have already designed and implemented vehicles that adopt mechanisms in which stakeholders within the value chains have a financial stake to advance better agricultural practices. We are in the process of developing another, the Biosphere Integrity Fund, that will aim to scale this investment further.”
The Rainforest Alliance and Clarmondial are already collaborating to accelerate Investments in high biodiversity landscapes globally under the Business Case for Collective Landscape Action, a partnership between the Rainforest Alliance, Clarmondial, CDP, and Conservation International, supported by USAID. This investment will build on that work and leverages Clarmondial’s experience in the Africa region.
Annelies Withofs, Programme Manager at IKEA Foundation, elaborates: “We are confident that a collaboration between the Rainforest Alliance and Clarmondial will advance the landscape action plan. This collaboration builds on the unique networks and expertise that the parties have built: the Rainforest Alliance has relevant experience in regenerative agriculture, and Clarmondial has demonstrated its ability to develop and execute innovative financing mechanisms that mobilize private capital for sustainable agricultural value chains.”
Clarmondial has already identified potential investments and will be working closely with the Rainforest Alliance and other parties in the landscape with the aim of executing a transaction before the end of the year. The work builds on the track record that Clarmondial has established, including through transactions executed by the Food Securities Fund in relevant value chains, including in East Africa.
