7 December 2014: Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries and regional programmes, in partnership with regional and global organizations, have launched ‘Initiative 20×20,’ a country-led effort to begin restoring 20 million hectares of degraded land by 2020. The initiative, which aims to restore forests and ecosystems, reduce poverty and improve agricultural productivity, was launched on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru.

Initiative 20×20 objectives will also contribute to the Bonn Challenge, a global goal to bring 150 million hectares of land into restoration by 2020. Restoration activities will, in part, be supported through US$365 million from the private sector and bilateral and multilateral funders.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) notes in recent years, more than 40% (650 million hectares) of LAC forests have been completely deforested or degraded, driven by large- and small-scale agriculture, infrastructure development and mining. As land use, land use change and forestry are responsible for about half of the greenhouse gas emissions in LAC, reducing emissions from land use change is critical in moving towards low carbon development, according to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) press release.

Countries and investors, through the initiative, will be able to work to restore forests, re-wilder degraded ecosystems, and improve the productivity of ‘mosaic landscapes’ through sustainable agroforestry and silvopasture. The restoration process is expected to provide economic, social, and environmental benefits through improved local livelihoods, ecosystem services such as biodiversity recovery and protection, erosion prevention and water purification, avoided deforestation and carbon storage.

The initiative aims to: inspire national restoration commitments by engaging with Ministers of Agriculture and Environment; support the economic case by assessing the societal benefits from restoration and avoided deforestation; and establish a financial mechanism allowing the private sector to fund restoration projects.

Thus far, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and two regional conservation programmes (Regional Program of Conservacion Patagonica and Regional Program Bosques Modelo) have joined the Initiative.

The WRI, IUCN, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) are supporting the initiative. WRI and IUCN have identified over 200 million hectares of restoration opportunities in LAC, and are working towards quantifying the economic and climate benefits of reaching the Initiative 20×20 restoration targets. [Initiative 20×20 Website] [IUCN News Story] [UNCCD Press Release]