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From
Bronagh Woods
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Published on
20.11.25
Launched at UNFCCC COP30 in Belém, the RAIZ accelerator will unite governments and investors behind a shared goal: restoring the world’s farmland to strengthen food security, tackle climate breakdown, and protect biodiversity. CGIAR supports RAIZ as a technical partner.
RAIZ addresses one of today’s most urgent challenges. With over 1 billion hectares of agricultural land already degraded, food security, biodiversity, and climate stability for more than 3 billion people are under threat. The RAIZ accelerator will unite governments and investors behind a shared goal: restoring the world’s farmland to strengthen food security, tackle climate breakdown, and protect biodiversity.
“RAIZ turns landscape restoration science into practical investment guidance,” said Dr. Sandra Milach, Chief Scientist, CGIAR, “This can unlock the capital needed to restore the RAIZ target of 250 million hectares of degraded farmland, boosting food security and strengthening livelihoods for millions of rural farmers.”
Across the world, we have proven solutions for restoring degraded farmland, yet a persistent financing gap prevents these solutions from reaching scale. CGIAR’s role within RAIZ is to bridge that gap by translating science into investable opportunities and de-risking agricultural restoration at scale.
The opportunity is huge. Restoring 250 million hectares by 2050 could reduce up to 20 gigatonnes of emissions and increase food production by as much as 15 billion tonnes. Mobilizing just 1% of annual agrifood revenues could bridge the funding gap entirely.
To unlock this potential, capital must be guided by science. Investors need confidence in where to invest, which restoration models work, and what returns can be expected.
CGIAR can drive that confidence. Through the CGIAR Hub for Sustainable Finance – ImpactSF – we translate agricultural science into investable opportunities and systematically de-risk restoration finance.
Our AI-enabled analytics and science-based proxies quantify food security, climate mitigation, biodiversity gains, and livelihood outcomes across the full investment lifecycle. These metrics provide the transparency and rigor that institutional investors demand.
CGIAR’s track record
CGIAR has supported more than 190 agricultural enterprises, collaborated with over 10 banks to develop climate-smart financial products, and influenced more than USD 750 million in capital deployment.
Our contributions span multiple funds, including the Climate Smart Food Systems Fund, the Amazon Biodiversity Fund, Ag360 and FASA for agricultural SMEs, and the Tropical Resilience Fund supporting adaptation in tropical agriculture.
About RAIZ
The Resilient Agriculture Investment for net-Zero land degradation (RAIZ) accelerator is a global mutirão – convening countries, multilateral institutions, investors, and civil society to accelerate financing for restoring agricultural land. It is designed to help governments and financial partners co-design tailored financing solutions at the national level to unlock investment at scale.
Led by Brazil and supported by the governments of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom, the accelerator was launched at UNFCCC COP30. CGIAR supports RAIZ as a technical partner.