Legacy Landscapes Fund
Organizational profile:
The Legacy Landscapes Fund (LLF) is a charitable foundation under German law with a diverse Supervisory and Management Board representing public and private partners. LLF is an ambitious new financing instrument aimed at protecting the world’s most outstanding natural places and closing the funding gap for biodiversity conservation in the Global South. It is a joint initiative by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), KfW Development Bank (KfW), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Campaign for Nature (CfN), Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
LLF’s vision is a global network of sustainably funded, effectively managed conservation areas helping to halt the dramatic loss of biodiversity in outstanding legacy landscapes across developing countries.
LLF’s mission is to safeguard outstanding biodiversity by promoting nature conservation and the preservation of ecosystem services in globally significant conservation areas, while working with local communities and respecting their rights and needs. In collaboration with a wide range of partners and funders, and acknowledging international best practices, the LLF provides long-term financial support to the management costs of globally significant legacy landscapes.
LLF’s Goals:
• Build a global, diversified portfolio of 30+ legacy landscapes by 2030.
• Protect more than 60.000km2 of the world’s most important biodiversity.
• Set-up of a 1 billion USD sinking plus endowment share with public and private donors that will allow supporting operational costs of up to 30 landscapes in perpetuity.
Financing Instrument: Grants
Project scale: The Legacy Landscapes Fund will secure the core financial needs for conserving a network of at least 30 of the world’s most important areas of biodiversity, while respecting the rights and needs of local stakeholders and communities. The Fund will provide 1 million US dollars per “legacy landscape” annually.
Recipient countries regions/country groups: developing countries
Recipient categories: NGOs, community-based organizations
Eligibility Criteria:
The LLF is results-oriented. It finances long-term partnerships between experienced NGOs and protected area authorities, as well as indigenous and local communities, to support the efficient conservation and management of protected areas and their buffer zones.
The Legacy Landscapes Fund’s Grant Programme provides long-term, dependable and secure baseline funding for selected globally recognized biodiversity hotspots – the ‘Legacy Landscapes’. Legacy Landscapes are defined in the LLF statutes as:
- Globally significant protected areas;
- With at least 2000 km2 of ecologically, largely intact habitats;
- With a portion of at least 50% of the area being classified as protected areas under IUCN categories I / II (or equivalent).
According to the LLF statutes, support to the Legacy Landscapes will focus on:
- Preservation of the ecological functions of the protected areas as well as their buffer zones;
- The promotion of good governance, effective public institutions, and trustful cooperation with the local populations (e.g. via participation, grievance, and conflict resolution mechanisms), while respecting human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples, as well as international environmental and social standards.
Application guidelines:
All interested NGOs are invited to apply to upcoming calls for proposals. Successful applicants must be able to demonstrate that they have established long-term, trusting and successful partnerships with national conservation authorities and local communities in protected areas.
The Fund focuses on places and partnerships that promise effective biodiversity conservation, including:
- Both new and existing protected areas and landscapes that are biologically outstanding and where the long-term conservation of habitat, species, and ecological processes is viable.
- Each legacy landscape will have a long-term (15+ years initially) funding contract by a partnership of public sector and private (philanthropic or corporate) donors.
- The funding of operations will be based on key performance indicators and regular audits.
Core requirements for LLF support are:
- Written confirmation from the responsible government institution that indicates intentions of establishing a long-term partnership with the applicant (NGO) to secure the proposed legacy landscape, e.g.; Endorsement of the protected area (PA) authority/custodian of land to the submitted proposal in writing;
- A Support Programme that aims both to, i) promote the effective management of the protected area and ii) to address priority threats as they emerge from the buffer zone;
- Clearly defined key performance indicators that contribute to the achievement of the LLF’s foundation-level impact and outcome indicators;
- Full compliance with international environmental and social standards, including human rights and the rights and needs of indigenous peoples;
- The Support Programme shall include a dedicated component which promotes sustainable natural resource management and income-generating by communities inside and adjacent to the protected area;
- The levels of government funding to the PA shall be maintained (no substitution of government budget support through LLF funds).