Private Sector

Collaboration with the private sector helps prevent deforestation by stimulating sustainable practices while leveraging private innovation to increase productivity without destroying forest areas.

CAFI has chosen innovative financing, such as grants and concessional loans, to boost sustainable investments in the region, supporting projects that preserve forests. Its main goal is to make conservation economically feasible and practical to prevent deforestation.

CAFI engages with the private sector to create a deforestation-free economy.

Although CAFI does not directly fund private companies, it facilitates connections with implementing organizations (IOs) to accelerate private sector project development.

CAFI offers investment grants for risk-sharing and below-market rate loans with favorable terms, and performance-based grants that value environmental services, dependent on verified results.

In 2023 the EB approved the & Green Project: “Scaling-up commercial investment in deforestation-free Central African commodity supply chains” with a total budget of $51,106,348 focused on scaling-up commercial investment in tropical agricultural supply chains while transforming them to deforestation-free and socially inclusive practices at a landscape level.

Following a Call for Expressions of Interest (EoI) for the Regional Private Sector Facility in September 2023 and the CAFI investment and performance framework approved by the CAFI’s Executive Board, $100 million were allocated to the CAFI private sector facility for project development grants to support early-stage projects, pilot new technologies, and address investment risks and information gaps.