To achieve the SDGs, new models of investment and finance are needed that not only incentivize the scaling up of investment in sustainable agriculture and land management, but do so in strategic ways that contribute to the inter-related goals and effectively manage the competition and interdependencies for natural resources and ecosystem services among the Goals and among land users. This paper analyzes a number of those new models, and proposes actions that can be taken to improve the financial picture for sustainable development.

This study is an output of the Finance Working Group of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative. The Initiative has been working since 2011 on knowledge sharing, dialogue and action to support the implementation of Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) around the world. The Finance Working Group seeks to expand financing for integrated landscape investment by articulating, analyzing and disseminating the case for investing in ILM to finance stakeholders, and by supporting the mobilization of finance for integrated landscapes in national development strategies in selected countries.

This analysis focused on clarifying the potential financial benefits of investing within an ILM framework (section 2); defining the key elements in financing ILM (section 3); understanding the key challenges and emerging solutions for investors and financiers (section 4); and recommended actions that will scale up the flow finance into integrated landscape investments (section 5). The expectations are that these lessons will be relevant not only to investors and financiers** but also to integrated landscape initiatives, policy makers and designers of regional and global land-related
programs in sustainable agriculture, forest landscape restoration, ecosystem-based climate adaptation, and agricultural green growth.

By 2030, demand for freshwater is projected to exceed supply by 40 percent. Estimates suggest agricultural production will need to go up by more than 70 percent by 2050 to feed a population of 9 billion people. The total average annual net investment in developing country agriculture required to deliver the necessary production increases is estimated to be USD 83 billion, an increase of about 50 percent.