COP30: Eight countries back RAIZ - the Brazil-led finance accelerator to scale farmland restoration worldwide

The Resilient Agriculture Investment for net-Zero land degradation (RAIZ) accelerator offers a ‘quadruple-win’ for climate, biodiversity, food security and addressing desertification.

19 November 2025, Bélem: Eight countries have announced their support for an innovative new Brazil-led accelerator that will unite governments and investors behind a shared goal: restoring the world’s farmland to strengthen food security, tackle climate breakdown, and protect biodiversity.

The Resilient Agriculture Investment for net-Zero land degradation (RAIZ) accelerator will assist participating governments to unlock and strategically allocate public and private investment for the restoration of degraded agricultural land at scale. The accelerator builds on the lessons of Green Way and EcoInvest in Brazil – an innovative mechanism that mobilised close to USD 6 billion in public debt and commercial loans to restore up to 3 million hectares of pastureland. 

Dr. Sandra Milach, Chief Scientist at CGIAR, which supports RAIZ as a technical partner, said: “Evidence shows every dollar invested in land restoration can generate up to $30 in economic benefits—yet inadequate risk assessment and impact tracking have constrained capital flows. RAIZ can change this by translating landscape restoration science into actionable guidance for structuring investment vehicles, embedding evidence-based metrics throughout fund lifecycles, and promoting rigorous monitoring systems that quantify climate, biodiversity, and livelihood outcomes. This approach can help de-risk restoration investments and unlock the institutional capital needed to close the funding gap and achieve the 250 million hectare target.”

Over 20% of the world’s agricultural land – around 1 billion hectares – is currently degraded. Degraded soils are less productive and resilient, contributing to food insecurity and incentivising expansion into natural ecosystems, including deforestation. Reversing just 10% of cropland degradation could restore 44 million tonnes of annual food production and meet the nutritional requirements of 154 million people. 

However, capital is not flowing at the scale needed to address the challenge. A USD 105 billion funding gap remains, which governments alone cannot fill. The private sector could invest up to USD 90 billion in on-farm nature-based solutions, but struggles to mobilise funds due to high upfront costs, long payback timelines, and variable returns. Governments have a critical role to play in de-risking private capital. RAIZ 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 will be officially launched at a Ministerial Event at UNFCCC COP30 in Belém on Wednesday, 19 November.

Bruno Brasil, Director of Sustainable Production at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA), Brazil, said: “Building on initiatives like the Brazilian Green Way and EcoInvest programs, we can unlock billions globally to restore degraded farmland, protect biodiversity, and ensure food security. Scaling these models is key to driving restoration that works for farmers, communities, and the planet.”

The technical assistance provided by RAIZ will help governments to:

1. Map degraded landscapes to prioritize areas for investment: An interactive mapping tool will respond to the need for accurate analysis, enabling funding to be directed to areas with the highest potential for productivity gains. 
2. Identify investable restoration solutions and assess the financing needs: Governments will be supported to identify investable restoration solutions and develop a Farmland Restoration Finance Assessment outlining costs, returns, funding gaps and identifying possible sources of finance.
3. Design optimal co-investment mechanisms and scale proven solutions: RAIZ will convene governments and interested investors to build or tailor co-investment vehicles that leverage public finance to derisk private investments and reduce capital costs. 
4. Foster collaboration and knowledge exchange within the ecosystem: RAIZ will consolidate lessons from national experiences into case studies and guidance to inform global peer learning and improve enabling conditions for restoration finance.

The Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Canada, said: “Canada supports the overarching goal of RAIZ, recognizing its alignment with global efforts to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation. Canada looks forward to opportunities to contribute through knowledge exchange, technical collaboration, and engagement in a community of practice.”  

Dr Osama Faqeeha, Advisor to the UNCCD COP16 Presidency and Deputy Minister for Environment, Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, said: “The UNCCD COP16 Presidency, represented by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, welcomes the RAIZ accelerator as a strong signal of the need for continued collaboration to finance farmland restoration globally and guarantee food security and rural livelihoods for generations to come. The UNCCD COP16 Presidency encourages collaborative efforts with other international and regional initiatives aiming to enhance land conservation and restore degraded lands such as the Middle East Green Initiative and the G20 Global Land Initiative” 

Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, Minister for Climate and Environment, Norway, said: “Norway welcomes the RAIZ accelerator as a strong signal of the need for continued collaboration to finance farmland restoration globally and guarantee food security and rural livelihoods. Norway has worked collaboratively with Brazil and many other partners to maintain momentum on this vital issue through initiatives such as the blended finance-mechanism Catalytic Capital for the Agricultural Transition in Brazil (CCAT). Norway is happy to support the RAIZ initiative”.

Orlando Chirinos Trujillo, Vice Minister of Rural Development and Irrigation of Peru and President of PLACA, said: “Peru recognizes the importance of initiatives that contribute to productive soil restoration and the sustainable management of agricultural landscapes. The RAIZ proposal represents a significant step toward advancing models that integrate reduced land degradation, climate resilience, and the well-being of rural communities. We value Brazil’s efforts to promote a platform that strengthens technical capacities, encourages the exchange of innovative approaches, and fosters informed dialogue among governments and financial partners. Peru expresses its support for the objectives of RAIZ and will follow its progress with interest, along with any cooperation opportunities it may generate for the region and globally.” 

Mary Creagh, Minister of Nature, United Kingdom, said: “The United Kingdom welcomes the RAIZ accelerator as a much-needed way to build collaboration and innovative finance to restore degraded land globally, which in turn supports our ecosystems, strengthens livelihoods, and builds food security and resilience. The UK is delighted to have worked with Brazil on the development of RAIZ and we look forward to the further progress of this important work.”

Governments and investors are encouraged to join this effort and work together to co-design and launch tailored national mechanisms for farmland restoration. Development banks, private investors, and philanthropic partners are all needed to unlock solutions that bring finance to farmers and restore the world’s productive farmlands. 

Kaveh Zahedi, Director of FAO’s Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment, said: “RAIZ represents the enormous potential before us: to bring up to a fifth of the world’s agricultural land back into more productive and sustainable use. But the benefits go far beyond restoration. It is about sustaining land for future productivity, protecting food production and food security from climate risks, and ensuring the sustainable use of biodiversity. This is what agrifood systems solutions can achieve with the right investments and partnerships. FAO is honoured to support this initiative through the Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation (FAST) Partnership, and we look forward to implementing it together with countries and partners.”

Morgan Gillespy, Executive Director at the Food and Land Use Coalition, said: “Despite millions pledged for regenerative agriculture in recent years, much of the financing remains fragmented — locked in small-scale, blended facilities tied to specific projects, commodities or geographies. To scale from millions to billions, we must move beyond a patchwork of efforts toward true systems change. Through RAIZ, FOLU and its partners are bringing investors and farmers to the table with governments to co-design joint investment mechanisms at national level that align public incentives with private capital, restoring degraded farmland at scale. Public and private investors alike recognise that restoring soils isn’t just about climate and nature — it’s about securing value chains, boosting farmer livelihoods, and strengthening rural economies.”

The launch of RAIZ supports key global policy goals, including the COP30 Presidency’s action agenda (Axis 3) on transforming agriculture and food systems, with a focus on land restoration (Goal 8). Farmland restoration is also central to the Rio Conventions (UNCBD, UNCCD, UNFCCC) and the UN 2030 Agenda, notably SDG 15.3 which aims to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030. By promoting more sustainable and regenerative agriculture, RAIZ advances efforts to restore degraded land, boost productivity, improve soil carbon capture potential, and reduce pressure on forests.

Andrea Meza Murillo, Deputy Executive Secretary at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), said: “Land and soil degradation represent structural challenges for food and water security and for climate, biodiversity and development goals.  Initiatives like RAIZ, which lay down foundations for cooperation across partners and conventions help farmers and communities to achieve healthy soils and healthy lands as building blocks of prosperous and resilient economies. We look forward to seeing how RAIZ could become a cross-COP accelerator for stronger cooperation on joint challenges and co-benefits, and assessing progress at UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia.”

RAIZ will be built and delivered by members of the Activation Group for Key Objective 8 – ‘Land restoration and sustainable agriculture’ – of the COP30 Action Agenda. The accelerator will be hosted by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA) under the FAO FAST Partnership, with the collaboration of the UNCCD G20 Global Land Initiative, and the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) in partnership with the Action Agenda for Regenerative Landscapes. The initiative is supported by technical partners such as the Green Climate Fund, the World Bank, CGIAR, the Climate Policy Initiative, the Riyadh Action Agenda, Restor, Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS) and Agroicone.

Maria Netto, Executive Director of the Instituto Clima e Sociedade, said: “RAIZ arrives at a decisive moment for the global climate agenda. Around the world, degraded farmland is undermining food security, increasing pressure on forests, and weakening rural economies. What RAIZ offers is a practical pathway for countries to turn ambition into action — by mobilizing investment at scale, aligning public and private finance, and restoring productivity where it is most urgently needed. This is not only about land; it is about resilience, livelihoods, and a new vision of agricultural development that protects nature while strengthening economies. RAIZ can help countries unlock the transformative potential of restoration”. 

Diane Holdorf,  Executive Vice President of WBCSD, co-host of the Action Agenda for Regenerative Landscapes: “Restoring farmland requires business and government to work together to invest in landscapes at scale. RAIZ provides a unique opportunity for collaboration, where the private sector and government can co-invest, de-risk projects, and help deliver lasting benefits for climate, nature, and communities. RAIZ can build on lessons from the Landscape Accelerator Brazil and Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes, through which more than 40 organizations have committed to investing $9B+ in rural landscapes, covering more than 210 million hectares of land and reaching 12 million farmers across 90+ commodities and 110+ countries by 2030.”