COP17 advances US$1.3 billion for land restoration, with rangelands at the centre

• Mongolia launches a national Business4Land Hub and sets a 10 per cent green lending target 

• New finance backs rangelands and drought resilience across 23 countries on five continents 

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 24 August 2026 — Governments, development banks, funds and companies meeting at the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17) have announced US$1.3 billion in new and pipeline finance for land restoration and drought resilience, spanning commitments in 23 countries across five continents. 

At the centre of the new finance is a major push on rangelands — an issue of particular importance to host country Mongolia. The Rangelands Flagship Initiative, currently valued at US$1.2 billion across 45 named projects, was launched in Ulaanbaatar during the United Nations International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in 2026, a designation championed by Mongolia. It is the largest single mobilisation for rangelands in the Convention's history. 

Of the finance announced at COP17, US$644.5 million is currently identified as new finance, with US$216.4 million already confirmed and moving towards implementation.  

Mongolia's domestic finance agenda 

Mongolia came to COP17 with a series of measures aimed at bringing more domestic finance into land restoration. These include sector-wide sustainable finance principles, a national green taxonomy, and a target of 10 per cent green lending by 2030. 

Mongolia also launched a national Business4Land (B4L) Hub, bringing the Convention's private-sector platform to the country level for the first time. Russia followed with a hub of its own, while Luxembourg moved to establish a Business4Land Foundation and Germany funded the B4L Finance Expert Group. 

Rangelands: a flagship that arrived with a portfolio 

Rangelands cover more than half of the world's land surface and support the livelihoods of around two billion people, including some 500 million pastoralists. Yet up to half of these ecosystems are degraded or at risk, making investment in their restoration critical for food security, livelihoods and drought resilience. 

The economic case for that investment is significant. Rangelands generate benefits estimated at US$21–47 trillion a year, including through food production, water, carbon storage and biodiversity. Restoring rangelands typically returns US$4–6 for every dollar invested — and, when wider public benefits such as water supply are included, returns can reach as high as US$36 for every dollar invested. 

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) supports coordination of the Rangelands Flagship Initiative through a US$3.3 million investment in the UNCCD COP17 Legacy Project. Over the past four years, GEF has also approved more than 50 projects worth over US$300 million supporting sustainable rangeland management and restoration, as well as pastoralist livelihoods.  

The Asian Development Bank put US$113 million behind the Green Inclusive Regional Agribusiness Fund, while the Green Climate Fund backed two projects in Botswana and Mongolia and TWENDE in Kenya with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The Adaptation Fund committed US$9.1 million to locally led adaptation with Indigenous Peoples and local communities across Africa, while the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) backed Forests4Future (US$76 million) and three further programmes across Southern Africa. Peace Parks Foundation and Conservation International brought Herding for Health (US$35 million), while the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) brought the STELARR Investment Hub (US$22 million). 

Twelve of the projects are delivered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), six with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and three with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) — showing how the UN system and development partners are beginning to converge around a common implementation agenda for rangelands. 

The significance of the Flagship is therefore not only its financial value. It is the emergence of an investment pipeline around ecosystems that have historically been under-recognized and underinvested, despite their importance to food systems, livelihoodsand resilience. 

“Land is not simply an environmental issue — it is economic infrastructure. It underpins food, water, jobs and stability, and when land fails, the costs are felt across economies and communities. What we are seeing in Ulaanbaatar is a shift from talking about the financing gap to building the pathways that can move investment into implementation, from stronger project pipelines and de-risking instruments to public-private partnerships. Ultimately, this finance will be judged by whether it reaches the people and landscapes that need it.” — Yasmine Fouad, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD 

“Rangelands are vital ecosystems, yet they have long been underfunded. Through the new UNCCD COP17 Legacy Project and other projects that are joining the Rangeland Flagship Initiative, the GEF is supporting the implementation of successful rangelands management and restoration at scale by combining our investments with strong partnerships.” — Chizuru Aoki, Head of the Multilateral Environmental Conventions and Funds Division of the Global Environmental Facility 

Development banks step up — and land moves towards its own investment category 

The Ministerial Dialogue on innovative financial mechanisms brought together high-level representatives of the World Bank Group, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Investment Bank, Islamic Development Bank, GEF and Green Climate Fund to advance finance for land restoration and drought resilience. 

Country Parties and development banks highlighted the need to make investment in land, soil health and drought resilience more visible and trackable within existing nature finance categories — based on a simple principle: what is measured is more likely to attract investment. 

There was broad support for scaling guarantees, first-loss capital and index-based insurance. The need is particularly acute in Africa, where only 3 per cent of smallholders have agricultural insurance, compared with 20 per cent elsewhere in the developing world. 

Participants also backed project preparation facilities to build a pipeline of investment-ready projects, particularly in least developed countries and fragile contexts, and called for simpler access to multilateral funds. Other options discussed included debt-for-nature swaps, nature-performance bonds, sustainability-linked bonds and country platforms. 

The discussions were backed by concrete financial commitments. At the African Union High-Level Event, the African Development Bank committed US$100 million to the Zambezi River Basin programme, spanning eight countries, alongside the Southern Africa Great Green Wall Accelerator — both confirmed, with board approval pathways already defined. 

Further finance commitments 

Luxembourg committed €5 million in catalytic first-loss capital to the Drought Resilience Investment Facility, Spain €5 million to the second phase of the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), and Germany a further €11 million to CompensActions. 

The Korea Forest Service, UNDP and the Global Mechanism opened the Greening Drylands Partnership call for proposals, channeling US$2.4 million in small grants directly to community implementers. 

Business: from concept to country presence 

Private sector finance currently accounts for only around 6 per cent of global investment in land restoration. The B4L Hubs launched in Ulaanbaatar aims to help close that gap at national level, complementing global efforts to mobilize private investment. 

The challenge is not simply to ask businesses to invest more. It is to create the conditions that allow investment to move into land restoration at scale, including stronger project pipelines, credible data, clearer policy signals, and mechanisms that help manage early-stage risk. 

The launch of national Business4Land Hubs marks an important step in bringing that architecture closer to where investment decisions are made. Mongolia established the first national B4L Hub, followed by Russia, while Luxembourg moved to establish a Business4Land Foundation and Germany supported the B4L Finance Expert Group. 

Together, these initiatives are designed to connect national priorities, companies, financial institutions, and investment opportunities more directly. 

“Six per cent is not a rounding error; it is a verdict on how regenerative landscapes have been packaged for investors. Business does not lack appetite for resilient supply chains, secure water and productive soil – it lacks bankable projects, credible data and a fair share of the early risk.  That's why businesses are calling for more coherent policy frameworks, stronger public-private collaboration and investment conditions that enable regenerative landscapes to be scaled. First-loss capital, national Business for Land Hubs and a Business4Land Foundation will start to fix this. This is not charity – it is balance-sheet risk that business has every reason to tackle.” — Peter Bakker, President and CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) 

The investment case 

Ministers agreed that the scale of the financing challenge cannot be met through grants alone, particularly at a time when official development assistance contracted by 23.1 per cent in 2025 and roughly half of low-income countries are in or at high risk of debt distress. 

The scale of the gap remains enormous. The UNCCD financial needs assessment estimates that US$355 billion a year is needed through 2030 to meet global land restoration commitments, compared with current investment of US$77 billion — an annual shortfall of US$278 billion. The cost of inaction is estimated at US$878 billion a year, while investing in healthy land could generate benefits of up to US$1.8 trillion annually. 

Closing that gap will also require governments to look beyond traditional development finance, including through tax relief for restoration, payments for ecosystem services and the repurposing of environmentally harmful subsidies, of which some US$2.4 trillion is public. 

Separately, the FIELD facility set out an intention to catalyse a further US$2 billion in land restoration finance across Asia and the Pacific. As this is a financing ambition rather than committed funding, it is not included in the totals above. 

Notes to editors 

• For media enquiries and interview requests 
• UNCCD Press Office: press [at] unccd.int (press[at]unccd[dot]int) 
• For more information about the GEF announcement:  New GEF initiative will support UNCCD to strengthen drylands and drought resilience . 

Media resources 

• COP17 programme  
• UNCCD COP17 website   
• Host country website    
• UN WebTV – Live broadcast of key plenary sessions with live interpretation in all six UN languages   
• Audiovisual material will be available for download here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/94683648@N07/albums/ 
• UNCCD COP17 Visual Assets and Branding Resources   
• Earth Negotiations Bulletin (daily coverage, photographs and analysis)   
• Follow @UNCCD on X, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook. 
• Primary hashtag: #COP17Mongolia 
• Additional hashtags: #UNCCDCOP17, #UNited4Land 

About UNCCD    

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the global vision and voice for land. We unite governments, scientists, policymakers, private sector and communities around a shared vision and global action to restore and manage the world’s land for the sustainability of humanity and the planet. Much more than an international treaty signed by 197 Parties, UNCCD is a multilateral commitment to mitigating today’s impacts of land degradation and advancing tomorrow’s land stewardship in order to provide food, water, shelter and economic opportunity to all people in an equitable and inclusive manner.