Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst

Africa has one-fifth of the planet’s remaining forests but is losing them faster than anywhere else. The Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst was developed by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), to catalyze an increase in private sector financing for forest conservation projects in Africa, with an aim to stem deforestation and support reforestation in cooperation with local communities.

TNC’s Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst aims to reduce carbon emissions, restore and conserve forests, improve livelihoods, and create jobs in Africa. In 2025, its projects and enterprises will cumulatively:

• Avoid or reduce 20 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually
• Restore or conserve 10 million hectares of African forest
• Improve 500,000 Africans’ livelihoods and wellbeing
• Create 5,000 jobs in Africa

The Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst intends to help local enterprises, forest communities and subsistence smallholders, focusing on reforestation, forest conservation or sustainable forest management.

The Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst includes a series of corporate and philanthropic partners such as UBS Optimus Foundation, BlueHaven Initiative, Good Energies, Grantham Foundation, Partnerships for Forests or the Shell Foundation.

Innpact has supported The Nature Conservancy in the design of the African Forestry Fund that lead to the creation of The Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst.

• Name: Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst
• Inception: January 2021
• Initiator: The Nature Conservancy
• Sector: Forestry
• Geographic Focus: Africa
• Target investees and end‐beneficiaries: forest communities and subsistence smallholders
• Instruments: Incubation, technical, operation and financial expert advice to impact forestry projects
• Type: Accelerator
• Info: https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/africa/forest-carbon-catalyst/