The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has approved eight new projects led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), totaling nearly $60 million, to support sustainable agricultural and environmental practices across seven countries. These initiatives aim to improve agricultural landscape management, promote climate-friendly livestock production, and restore forests, coastal areas, and marine ecosystems. The projects are expected to benefit over 1 million people across four continents, while mitigating 84.5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions and improving the management of 1.2 million hectares of productive land.
These projects will leverage approximately $429 million in co-financing and contribute to the restoration of 314,000 hectares of landscapes and the improved management of 305,000 hectares of protected areas on land and sea. The FAO-GEF partnership, which has been active since 2006, has now surpassed $2 billion in grants and mobilized over $14 billion in co-financing to support integrated environmental, climate, and biodiversity actions through agriculture and food systems globally. FAO Director-General QU Dongyu highlighted that the partnership strengthens the “Four Betters” agenda—better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life—while promoting more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems.
Among the approved projects are initiatives in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Ukraine, India, Mexico, and Senegal. These include integrated landscape management, forest and agroforestry restoration, sustainable livestock practices, biodiversity conservation, and the development of national livestock policies that promote low-emission and deforestation-free production. Collectively, these projects aim to enhance livelihoods, strengthen climate resilience, and support biodiversity protection while aligning with broader sustainable development goals.
In addition to the eight newly approved projects, the GEF had previously approved 14 FAO-led projects between June and December, totaling $19.7 million in investments and $75 million in co-financing. These projects support initiatives such as biodiversity protection beyond national jurisdictions, climate resilience and water security in Central Asia, land degradation neutrality, and agrifood system transformation. Separately, $6 million were allocated under the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund to restore native species, support sustainable biodiversity use, and rehabilitate coastal and marine ecosystems in the Cook Islands, Timor-Leste, and Mauritius.
Together, these ongoing and newly approved projects will restore thousands of hectares of land, enhance landscape management, mitigate millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and strengthen food security, ultimately improving the livelihoods and resilience of hundreds of thousands of people in the participating countries.
