Mobilizing viable investments to effectively protect and enhance natural resource stocks and ecosystem services in Asia’s landscapes is one of the region’s most challenging sustainable development issues. 

During the Forests Asia Summit 2014, held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 5–6 May, a high-level panel discussed how such public finance could be used effectively to mobilize private investment in sustainable landscape management.

ADB’s Senior Natural Resource Management Specialist, Sanath Ranawana, (3:35–13:25) proposed that the emphasis of public finance should be on creating conditions whereby the private sector would consider investments in sustainable landscape management (to generate ecosystem service based returns) as comparable to other forms of investments in the same landscapes. 

To do this, Mr. Ranawana said public financing from governments and overseas development assistance will need to focus efforts on:

• Enabling conditions including policy and regulatory frameworks,
• Fiscal instruments and incentives to even the playing field with competing investments,
• Research to better understand the availability and value of ecosystem services, and
• Awareness raising and education on the importance of ecosystem services.

Other panelists were J. Saputro, Millennium Challenge Account; Hilde Jervan, Norwegian Government Pension Fund; and Nguyen Ba Ngai, Viet Nam Administration of Forestry. The discussion was moderated by Peter Holmgren, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research.

Published: 26^th May 2014