The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is scaling up global efforts to make agriculture more resilient, climate-friendly and biodiversity-positive, with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) approving eight new FAO-led projects worth $58.8 million.
Spanning Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Mexico, Senegal, Tanzania and Ukraine, the initiatives are designed to support more than 1 million people while restoring ecosystems and strengthening food systems under growing climate pressure.
Beyond the headline figure, the impact is far larger. The projects will leverage around $429 million in co-financing, improve the management of 305,000 hectares of protected land and sea, restore 314,000 hectares of degraded landscapes, enhance sustainable practices across 1.2 million hectares of productive land, and help mitigate 84.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
The approvals mark a major milestone in the long-standing FAO–GEF partnership. Since becoming a GEF implementing agency in 2006, FAO has helped 142 countries unlock environmental financing to transform agrifood systems. With the latest work programme endorsed by the GEF Council this week, the FAO-GEF portfolio now surpasses $2 billion in grants, mobilising more than $14 billion in co-financing worldwide.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said the partnership has become increasingly integrated and impactful, delivering on FAO’s vision of the Four Betters—better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life. He added that FAO stands ready to continue supporting countries in accessing critical financing to make agrifood systems more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable, while ensuring no one is left behind.
The newly approved projects reflect a diverse but coherent strategy—linking landscape restoration, climate resilience, biodiversity protection and livelihoods:
Tanzania ($2.4 million): Expands the Food Systems Integrated Program to rice, aquaculture and livestock systems across Zanzibar’s Western Belts landscapes.
DR Congo ($6 million): Focuses on restoring degraded forests and farmlands in the Miombo woodlands to boost biodiversity, resilience and rural livelihoods.
Bangladesh ($9.2 million): Supports the restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity in three ecologically critical ecosystems, working closely with government and village conservation groups.
Ukraine ($5.4 million): Aims to restore accessible forests and agroforestry systems to strengthen climate resilience and support green recovery amid conflict impacts.
India ($9.9 million): Targets integrated landscape management across 2.9 million hectares in Central India, including areas surrounding half of the country’s tiger reserves.
India ($8.8 million): Focuses on smallholder livestock keepers, reducing land degradation and greening dairy value chains to improve climate and livelihood resilience.
Mexico ($8 million): Develops the country’s first national livestock policy to align agriculture, environment and finance toward deforestation-free, low-emission livestock production.
Senegal ($8.9 million): Strengthens climate resilience of coastal communities through sustainable fisheries management, aquaculture development and ecosystem restoration.
GEF Chairperson and CEO Carlos Manuel Rodríguez said the projects exemplify how policy coherence and sustainable practices can strengthen food system resilience, protect ecosystems and improve livelihoods simultaneously.
In addition to these eight large projects, the GEF approved 14 FAO-led medium-sized projects between June and December, totalling $19.7 million in GEF funding and $75 million in co-financing. These initiatives support goals ranging from biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction and land degradation neutrality to climate reporting under the Paris Agreement and agrifood value-chain transformation.
Separately, $6 million from the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund has been allocated for project concepts in the Cook Islands, Timor-Leste and Mauritius, focusing on restoring native species, promoting sustainable biodiversity use in agrifood systems, and rehabilitating coastal and marine ecosystems.
Taken together, these additional investments will restore more than 12,000 hectares of land, improve management across 393,000 hectares of landscapes, mitigate 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, and benefit around 354,000 people.
At a time when climate shocks, biodiversity loss and food insecurity are increasingly intertwined, the expanding FAO-GEF portfolio underscores a clear message: transforming agrifood systems is no longer optional—it is central to building resilient communities, protecting nature and securing a sustainable future.