General

The Global Environment Facility was established in October 1991 as a pilot program in the World Bank to assist in the protection of the global environment. In 1994 at the Rio Earth Summit the GEF was restructured and moved out of the World Bank system to b ecome a permanent separate institution. As part of the restructuring the GEF was entrusted to become the financial mechanism for both the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Conventionon Climate Change. The GEF subsequently was also selected to serve as financial mechanism for three more international conventions: The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (2001) the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (2003) and the Minamata Convention on Mercury (2013) .The GEF strives to achieve global environmental benefits by supporting developing countries in their efforts. After various changes agreed upon during last two replenishment negotiations the work is focused around five thematic focal areas: biodiversity; climate change mitigation; chemicals and waste; international waters; and land degradation. Furthermore an integrated approach pilot was established during the sixth replenishment negotiations to support activities in recipient countries that can help them meet commitments to more than one global convention or thematic area by tackling underlying drivers of environmental degradation. This synergetic approach will continue in GEF-7 through Impact Programs focused on food systems forests and cities.The GEF is a network organization. It is composed of independent secretariat and evaluation office the World Bank acts as a trustee channelling project support to implementing entities such as to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Finland has supported t he GEF from the very beginning. The support to the seventh replenishment of the GEF (1.7.2018-30.6.2022) is about 31 million euros. This budget decision covers the remaining part of the total contribution 497 million euros.

General

The project overall objective is ?Sustainable management and use of Tanzanian forests?. The project will contribute to this by increasing the availability of information on forests by working with three institutions of which two are research institutes (SU A TAFORI) and one is Tanzania Forest Service. In the long run this will improve the living conditions for the people of the country through strengthened national economy and quality of life. The project aims at supporting forest and land use policy in line with the National Forest Policy 2001. Forest land management forest-based industries and products and ecosystem conservation and management with institutions and human resources are included in NFP. The aim is sustainable supply of forest products and ser vices by maintaining sufficient forest area under effective management employment and foreign exchange earnings through sustainable forest-based industrial development and trade and ecosystem stability through conservation of forest biodiversity water catc hments and soil fertility.The results and activities of the INFORES-Tanzania project:1) Strengthened capacity of direct beneficiary organizations on NAFORMA maintenance and data dissemination and improved capacity on multisource forest data processing and GIS.2) Improved capacity of forest inventory and management oriented research in SUA and TAFORI.

General

Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) is a partnership programme launched in 2012 between Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO) the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the International Institute for Development and Environment ( IIED).FFF engages producer organisations of small holders women communities and indigenous peoples in decision-making and financing solutions related to forest and farm landscapes. FFF aims to enhance multi-sectoral stakeholder policy platforms involving s takeholders and government at local and national level. FFF promotes the investment capacity of local communities and organisations in the area for sustainable agriculture and forestry as well as practicing and development of sustainable forest management. This would improve the income level and food security for small producers women and indigenous peoples' communities. Moreover the FFF strengthens linkages between the local knowledge and experience and national and global agenda and initiatives.FFF looks in a holistic manner into links between forest ecosystem services poverty reduction food security and climate change impacts. It can be considered to be well in line with the integrated approach required by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Buil ding on the existing capacities in developing countries allows sustainable results. FFF is currently operational at country level in 10 countries: Bolivia Gambia Guatemala Kenya Liberia Myanmar Nepal Nicaragua Zambia and Vietnam. There are synergy effects that can be gained in countries where Finland also has bilateral development cooperation. Until now results in different countries have included: organising among small producers has contributed to higher producer prices; strengthened cooperation between t he producers and stakeholders; more women in leadership positions in producer organizations; realising functioning business plans; and achieving recognition of land rights for communities. FFF has also supported the process of preparation of the national p rograms in several countries and provided the opportunity for training and peer learning both at country and regional levels.FFF's overall performance is evaluated through a monitoring and learning framework. The mid-term evaluation which was carried out i n 2016 was very positive for the FFF. Finland's support to the FFF in 2016 is EUR 700 000.