FEATURE STORY: Costa Rica is Investing in a Landscape Approach to Build a Sustainable Future

Balancing forest conservation and other land uses to reduce degradation and achieve economic growth requires collaboration and informed action. Read how PROGREEN is helping to make this happen.

It is said the only thing more beautiful than mountains is more mountains. But mountains provide more than beauty. Preservation and restoration of mountain landscapes represents a key component in protecting against such losses and advancing countries’ ambitions for a greener economy. Read how the World Bank is working with the countries of Europe and Central Asia to preserve landscapes and restore ecosystems.

In partnership with PROBLUE, PROGREEN is planning to organize an associated event that will look at how World Bank partnership programs are leading sustainable change. Mark you calendars and stay tuned for more details on the event. Also be sure to check out the "Road to Stockholm" events taking place throughout April and May.

An overview of PROGREEN’s progress in developing and advancing implementation of the portfolio, and projects anticipated results towards PROGREEN’s goal of maintaining and improving ecosystem services in resilient production and conservation landscapes.

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Central Asia experiences frequent sand and dust storms, which have been made worse by human activity. The main objective of this study is to provide an economic analysis of the benefits of afforestation in the former Aral Seabed in Uzbekistan. 

Public investment in protected areas pays off, generating economic returns on government spending. Tourist spending strongly infiltrates local economies, while government revenues from park fees exceed investments in the two parks studies, establishing these protected areas as sources of revenue, rather than financial burdens. 

In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8th, PROGREEN and FOLUR hosted a webinar on empowering women in a wide range of ‘Green’ projects and programs. The webinar showcased examples of gender-transformative project/program actions, including an innovative approach using the W+ Standard to measure and monetize women’s empowerment outcomes.

The W+ Standard was created by Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) to measure project and program-related women’s empowerment outcomes. The W+ Standard provides a certification for projects or programs that generate increased social and economic benefits for women. These benefits can be in the form of time and labor-saving mechanisms, improved renewable energy technologies, increased leadership and/or income from the participation in forest and agriculture activities.

On February 2nd, the RESILAND CA+ program was presented at a dedicated panel session during the Second International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding. Co-financed by PROGREEN, IDA, Regional IDA, KWPF, and GEF, RESILAND CA+ aims to build resilient landscapes and promote restoration in Central Asia.

The report finds that repurposing a portion of government spending on agriculture each year to develop and disseminate more emission-efficient technologies for crops and livestock could reduce overall emissions from agriculture by more than 40 percent. 

This report presents lessons learned, documents best practices from a range of integrated land use initiatives, facilitates knowledge sharing, and provides a guide for practitioners who are looking to implement a holistic approach to sustainable development.

Introducing the new UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration Finance Taskforce

PROGREEN is part of a new World Bank–chaired Finance Task Force that will tackle key issues inhibiting successful landscape restoration. This includes guiding a reorientation of subsidies towards restoration, countering economic forces and vested interests in degradation, and incentivizing public and corporate investors to co-invest in ecosystem restoration. LEARN MORE

Video: Get a 360 Degree View of Landscape 

Immerse yourself in the environmental, economic, and social benefits of sustainable landscape management with a new 360-3D video that gives a realistic “before and after” view of the OROA Reserve in Chad. The video illustrates how sustainable landscape management activities will improve the use of land, fight climate change, and build resilience in the matters of water, land restoration and agriculture. It is hoped that being able to visualize the future will strengthen citizen engagement; traditional, local and central authorities’ ownership of the sustainable landscape activities; and help attract additional financing for the project. Thanks to PROGREEN's contribution, this video will be shared at local level to promote the vision of the project and engage with communities living near the reserve. WATCH HERE

The Great Green Wall was featured in the New York Times on January 23rd. The piece includes photos and footage from the program and the Niger landscape.

For change-making youth, restoration means mobilizing their communities. Meet the six Restoration Stewards who participated in the inaugural Restoration Stewards program from the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) and Youth in Landscapes (YIL) in 2021. 

Brazil’s Atlantic Forest gets a chance at a fresh start through restoration. Restoration initiatives are slowly making a mark on the Atlantic Forest, a Brazilian biome that has been reduced to about a quarter of its original area.

New Science is Restoring Red Spruce Forests. New science is boosting The Nature Conservancy's 20-year effort to restore iconic red spruce forests in the Central Appalachians.

Terraformation targets $100 mln for early stage forestry fund. Terraformation, a forest restoration start-up founded by the former boss of technology company Reddit, is looking to raise $100 million for a fund focused on early-stage projects in developing countries.

International Women’s Day: Empowering Women in Forest Communities is Key to Achieving Climate Goals and SDGs. Across the planet, about one billion women rely on forests for their livelihoods, helping to feed their families and contribute to household income – and building specialized knowledge of the best ways to manage and use forests sustainably.