Towards an Impact Investment Fund for Land Degradation Neutrality

The potential market size for the impact investment space has been estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Impact funds are making waves in both the public and private sector as frameworks for harnessing the market potential of impact investors. The Impact Investment Fund for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN Fund) is being created to provide a structured portfolio through which private and public sector actors can engage in investments in projects that maintain or improve the condition of soils and land resources, and thus contribute to achieving land degradation neutrality.

Elements for debate:

• Criteria for Success: Why is it time for a fund specifically addressing land degradation? How should the eligibility of products or projects be determined?
• Measuring "triple bottom line" returns: How to appropriately value social, environmental, and economic dimension of returns (and why investors care)?
• Engaging the private Sector: What are the business incentives for investing?
• Mitigating land-based risk: Many sectors that rely on the services provided by land, are traditionally seen as a high risk (even volatile) investment categories. What are some risk mitigation strategies that can be considered for this kind of fund?