Acción Andina – building a community driven movement to restore 1 million hectares of high Andean forests

This project is part of the explorer.land project stage at NOAH Zurich (6-7th Dec) that aims to facilitate investments & funding towards impactful restoration and conservation projects.

About

Acción Andina was co-founded in 2018 by Global Forest Generation and Peru-based conservation organization ECOAN. It is a Latin-American-led, native forest landscape restoration initiative aiming to restore and protect one million hectares of high Andean, native forest ecosystems in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Over the last 4.5 years, Acción Andina has grown into a major, multi-country restoration initiative with demonstrated restoration and conservation results. It already offers an attractive opportunity to engage in high-quality nature-based solutions, but its future potential and scale are what truly define its value.

To date, Acción Andina has:

• United 13 local partners across 20 restoration landscapes, supported over 30 restoration leaders working with 100+ local and indigenous communities and is actively engaging 18,000 people.
• Conserved and put under long-term restoration approximately 30,000 hectares using multiple conservation and restoration techniques, including the reforestation of 6.5 million native trees.
• Has raised US$ 8,404,302 and deployed locally US $11,007,620 (including projections through June 2023 and locally-matched fundraising).

Investments for scaling up

Acción Andina is a regional restoration movement across the Andes that is driven by local communities and leaders. It is our goal to build the foundations needed so that it is cost-effective and sustainable in the long term. As the lead strategic partner, Global Forest Generation takes a phased approach to scaling.

1. Phase (2018-2023): in the incubation phase, Acción Andina successfully launched in five countries (expecting to add Venezuela and Colombia in 2023), and prepared for massive scaling.
2. Phase (2023-2030): will see decentralization of the initiative’s governance and funding, and developing the financial infrastructure needed to absorb large private sector funding (including Payment for Ecosystem Services).
3. Phase(2030-2045): will see a fully built initiative, including massive scaling of restoration and the landscapes approach. It will incorporate different conservation models (e.g., agroforestry, ecosystem credits), as Acción Andina becomes a self-propagating social movement leading to the restoration and conservation of one million hectares of high Andean forests.