How targeted finance can contribute to landscape-level action
The Mount Kenya landscape is a critical agricultural hub with high biodiversity value and a vibrant local economy strongly dependent on natural resources. Yet, like many critical sourcing landscapes, it faces mounting pressures. Agricultural expansion, land degradation, and climate variability threaten not only the ecosystems, but also the livelihoods of thousands of smallholder farmers. Because agriculture dominates both the economy and land use in the region, it presents a strategic entry point to implement landscape-wide interventions that can deliver outcomes that balance biosphere integrity and ecosystem health with community well-being and economic viability.
To address these pressures and support the adoption of such interventions, the Mount Kenya Sustainable Landscape and Livelihoods Program (MSuLLi) was introduced. Led by the Rainforest Alliance and funded by the IKEA Foundation, the program aims to support local farming communities to conserve and manage their natural resources, while increasing incomes and delivering environmental benefits. A critical component of the initiative involves identifying and supporting business cases and financing models that contribute to such outcomes across the landscape.
In this context, the collaboration between the Rainforest Alliance in Kenya and Clarmondial functioned as a pilot to identify potential investment opportunities that align with landscape-level environmental and livelihood objectives. This work builds on the Rainforest Alliance’s foundational research in Kenya, including with Wageningen University and Research, and strong engagement in the landscape, and allowed Clarmondial to draw on its own technical expertise in impact finance and strong local network. Specifically, Clarmondial applied its proprietary impact frameworks, including its Nature Framework, developed together with Stockholm Environment Institute – SEI, and its Gender framework, developed with gender expert Dr. Cathy Rozel Farnworth. These impact frameworks enabled Clarmondial to ensure that nature (including biodiversity, climate adaptation, resilience and mitigation, and watershed health) and gender considerations are made throughout the investment cycle.
“There is no one-size-fits-all financial mechanism that can drive all desired environmental and social outcomes in a landscape,” notes Herbert Hatanga, Partner at Clarmondial, based in Kenya. “In the Mount Kenya landscape specifically, we’ve seen a strong willingness from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), large corporates, and value chain actors to implement targeted sustainability programs. Translating this willingness into action requires aligning the appropriate type of financing to the right actors, at the right time, and in accordance with the underlying business case. Building on the Rainforest Alliance’s strong groundwork, we applied our own impact tools and funding approaches to ensure that they contribute to the desired impact outcomes.”
Marion Nduta Ng’ang’a, Kenya Country Director at the Rainforest Alliance further explains: “Private sector finance can play a key role in enabling corporate actors in transitioning to more sustainable practices or scaling good agricultural practices. We are excited to continue building partnerships that support business cases that drive impact across the landscape”.
Supported by clear action plans and robust monitoring, short-term efforts can already deliver measurable outputs, from increased organic certification uptake (or engagement toward transition), to scaling gender-responsive trainings, reaching and benefiting both women and men within companies and across smallholder-driven supply chains.
About the Rainforest Alliance
The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organization that works to restore the balance between people and nature for both to thrive in harmony. Active in 62 countries, its alliance brings together farm and forest communities, companies, governments, civil society, and millions of individuals to drive positive change in some of the world’s most critically important landscapes and global supply chains. The Rainforest Alliance implements landscape and community projects, engages in advocacy, and works to improve markets by putting farm and forest communities at the centre. In 2024, the Rainforest Alliance partnered with nearly 8 million farmers and workers, and millions of consumers around the world can find the Rainforest Alliance seal on over 40,000 of their favourite products.
About the IKEA Foundation
The IKEA Foundation is a strategic philanthropy that focuses its grant making efforts on tackling the two biggest threats to children’s futures: poverty and climate change. It currently grants more than €200 million per year to help improve family incomes and quality of life while protecting the planet from climate change. Since 2009, the IKEA Foundation has granted €2 billion to create a better future for children and their families.
In 2021 the Board of the IKEA Foundation decided to make an additional €1 billion available over the next five years to accelerate the reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions.
Learn more at: www.ikeafoundation.org or by following them on LinkedIn or Twitter.
About Clarmondial
Clarmondial is an independent company focused on designing and implementing investment solutions for the sustainable use of natural resources. Through the advisory work and investment funds it has developed, Clarmondial supports the sustainable production of agricultural commodities in emerging markets. Clarmondial’s activities aim to achieve positive environmental outcomes and contribute to rural livelihoods, including those of smallholder farmers.
