Mobilising Finance for Forests

Mobilising Finance for Forests (MFF) was established in 2021 by the United Kingdom government and FMO as a blended finance investment program to combat deforestation and other environmentally unsustainable land use practices contributing to global climate change. 

Investment Focus

Through MFF, we have been appointed by the UK government to invest up to £150 million across a mix of investment funds and direct investments in selected tropical forest regions in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 

MFF will target projects in two categories:

1. Projects that  increase the value of standing forests to lower the incentive to cut down forests (e.g. harvesting non-timber forest products such as nuts, seeds or native forest coffee, carbon offsetting schemes, eco-tourism, conservation projects)
2. Projects that integrate forest protection and restoration into agricultural production to reduce deforestation pressure (e.g soy, cattle, palm oil, cocoa, timber)

MFF highlights the UK’s commitment to raise climate ambition and promote nature-based solutions to tackle the drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss; mobilize financing to protect and restore critical ecosystems; build resilience and kick-start a just rural transition towards sustainable land use to benefit people, climate and nature. This makes MFF a perfect fit with our strategic priority to contribute to SDG 13 Climate Action.

Financing possibilities

MFF will offer long term financing up to 15 years to a mix of fund and direct investments. The geographic scope includes countries in Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America, that have important tropical forests.  Up to 20% of the funding can be used for early stage project development.

• Fund investments in 3 to 5 Funds (70-80% of the program)
  • Investment funds targeting sustainable investments in the forestry and other land-use sectors
  • Equity or debt investments
• Direct investments (20-30% of program)
  • Minority shares in equity investments
  • Loans of up to (the equivalent of) € 10 million

A Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) will provide the program’s fund managers and direct investees with post-investment advisory support to scale proven, bankable projects. Alongside, the TAF will actively gather learnings from selected investees on the challenges and successes of investing in sustainable land-use and forestry. To promote catalytic change, the TAF will convene key players or ‘cohorts’ from the landscape to share knowledge and disseminate ‘blueprints’ of successful investment models.