The Danone Fund for Nature
After a 10-year partnership with Ramsar, another major environmental milestone was achieved in 2008. During the Conference of the Parties to the Ramsar Convention in Changwon, South Korea, the Ramsar Convention, IUCN and Danone signed an agreement: the “Danone Fund for Nature”. This agreement is intended to combat climate change through field projects for the restoration of specific wetlands that make a non-negligible contribution to carbon sequestration. This restoration programme focuses on mangroves, plants with a strong potential for carbon capture and which play a vital role for biodiversity. Indeed, in addition to absorbing CO2, mangroves act as fish “nurseries”, produce fruit, honey, etc. They are also a source of ecotourism, filter water, and provide protection against flooding.
A pilot mangrove replanting project was initiated in Senegal. Four years later, three further field projects in India and Indonesia demonstrated the success of this initiative and, in their wake, a new collaboratively developed methodology was approved by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Photos © J-F. Hellio and N. Van Ingen
For more information about this methodology, which evaluates the impact of mangrove restoration on efforts to combat climate change, see: http://cdm.unfccc.int/methodologies/DB/CKSXP498IACIQHXZPEVRJXQKZ3G5WQ.
From the “Danone Fund for Nature” to the “Livelihoods Fund”
Thanks to the “Danone Fund for Nature” the Danone Group has developed a new approach to the carbon economy by creating the “Livelihoods Fund”, an Investment Company with Variable Capital (ICVC) enabling it to develop carbon sequestration (like the mangrove restoration project) or energy efficiency projects in developing countries. This Fund works by using the carbon absorption capacity of certain ecosystems, such as mangrove wetlands, to finance economic development of village communities through the restoration of these key environments.
Watch the video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJaeQeAJHT4
The Livelihoods Fund includes the following components:
Livelihoods Venture: a company which includes all the operational project management, engineering, economic and sustainable development skills. It mission is to identify local programmes with strong ecological, economic and social potential, and replicability; and to implement them in collaboration with local NGOs and rural communities.
Livelihoods Network: an association which facilitates exchanges and sharing of skills among a network of NGOs and experts. It also serves as a think-tank for issues touching on “Livelihoods”.
Livelihoods Steering Committee: this body is made up of representatives of organizations and other personalities including Anada Tiega, Secretary General of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, and Julia Marton-Lefevre, Director General of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), two organizations that along with Danone initiated the early pilot projects. Other members of the Steering Committee include: Luc Guyau, Independent President of the Council of the FAO, Tony Simons, Director General of ICRAF, the World Agroforesty Centre (Nairobi), Michel Griffon, agronomist and researcher, President of the Scientific Council of the French Global Environment Facility.
For further information on the Livelihoods Fund:
For further information on the IUCN-Ramsar-Danone partnership: