US$100 million over four years toward the target of $500 million to train and invest in community-based organizations and small enterprises to restore degraded land across Africa

VANCOUVER, CANADA (April 17, 2023) — At TED2023, the Audacious Project announced that World Resources Institute (WRI)’s Restore Local project will be awarded $100 million over four years to accelerate locally led land restoration in three African landscapes: the Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin area, the Cocoa Belt of Ghana and Greater Rift Valley of Kenya. This investment is aligned with anchor funding from the Bezos Earth Fund of $50 million and the ambitious goals of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), a partnership of 33 African governments with the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) as its secretariat. This $150 million achieves 30% of the fundraising target of $500 million for philanthropy.

With support through The Audacious Project, Restore Local will make direct investments in local community-based organizations and small and medium enterprises to accelerate restoration activities on the ground, deepen their knowledge and skills, propose and implement supportive policies, and monitor their impact. It will contribute to AFR100’s continent-wide mission to restore 100 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030, as well as various government commitments in each country. READ further fromt he source