The office of French president Emmanuel Macron has announced a $2 billion pledge during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, to help protect carbon reserves and biodiversity.

Three financing partners of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) announced commitments to anchor a blended finance mechanism that will build local capacity and make loans and grants available to local communities and entrepreneurs restoring land in Africa. Southbridge Investments announced its partnership with AFR100 and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), another new AFR100 partner, to develop the $2 billion fund that will include $500 million in concessional finance and $1.5 billion in private investments in support of local restoration efforts across the continent. The fund’s commitment will strengthen capacity, deliver capital, and promote monitoring systems through AFR100 in the Rusizi River Basin and the Great Rift Valley, two iconic African landscapes.

According to the World Resources Institute (WRI), Africa suffers from the highest level of forest degradation on earth at 65 percent, which leads to food and water insecurity, widespread erosion, limited economic opportunities, and vulnerabilities to climate change. To stop degradation and accelerate restoration, the AFR100 partnership was launched, anchored by 32 African governments, local entrepreneurs, financiers, and technical support providers. WRI and the African Union Development Agency provide foundational support alongside dozens of like-minded partners.

As part of the effort, the Bezos Earth Fund pledged $1 billion by 2030 and has already allocated $50 million in aligned philanthropic support for AFR100's work in two iconic landscapes: the Rusizi River Basin and the Great Rift Valley. According to Reuters, the fund has pledged 30 percent of its $10 billion fund toward nature conservation, restoration, and food systems transformation and is seeking a coalition with African and European countries around COP27 for additional land restoration efforts.

“The Bezos Earth Fund has earmarked $1 billion to be spent on restoration by 2030, and we believe Africa is one of the most important places to start,” said Bezos Earth Fund president and CEO Andrew Steer. “The Top 100 cohort has demonstrated that shovel-ready projects abound across the continent and are already transforming people’s lives and livelihoods. Given access to trainings and adoption of monitoring technologies, these projects can scale up dramatically.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/studio023)