Finance Earth, FSD Africa and FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi) have partnered to launch the Africa Nature Impact Fund, targeting $100 million to finance early-stage nature conservation and nature-based carbon projects across Africa.

The fund is seeking a first close of $20 million in 2027, supported by a cornerstone commitment of £5 million ($6.6 million) from FSDAi. The initiative was announced at the Carbon Markets Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda.

Developed by Finance Earth in partnership with FSD Africa and FSDAi, the fund aims to address financing gaps facing nature-based carbon and biodiversity projects, particularly those at early stages of development that struggle to attract commercial investment.

Africa Nature will provide financing across different stages of project development, from preparation and commercial piloting to implementation. The objective is to help projects move from pre-revenue stages towards sustainable, long-term contracted revenues.

The fund targets the protection or regeneration of 4.5 million hectares of land and the sequestration or avoidance of more than 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over the lifetimes of its projects.

It also aims to improve the livelihoods of 1.4 million people, half of them women, and support the protection of more than 60 animal and plant species.

The financing structure will incorporate community benefit-sharing arrangements, with the fund targeting approximately $450 million in economic benefits for local communities. Projects will be required to direct a substantial share of gross carbon value to host communities.

“Africa holds a quarter of the planet’s biodiversity, yet nature-based projects across the continent face major challenges in accessing the patient, fairly structured capital they need to succeed,” said James Mansfield, Managing Director of Finance Earth.

“Africa Nature is designed to change this by financing projects equitably and building local investment and governance structures, so that African nature assets are financed by African financial institutions.”

The fund builds on FSD Africa’s Carbon Accelerator Programme for the Environment (CAPE), delivered in partnership with Finance Earth, which supports nature-based carbon projects in becoming investment-ready.

The programme has assessed more than 300 projects and developed a pipeline representing over 3.4 billion tonnes of potential carbon dioxide equivalent impact across 76.5 million hectares.

Africa Nature also plans to work with African financial institutions to develop local investment capabilities in carbon markets and support longer-term African ownership and financing of nature-related assets.

FSDAi's cornerstone investment is intended to reduce risks associated with early-stage projects and attract additional capital from institutional and local investors.

“By anchoring the Africa Nature Impact Fund with much needed catalytic capital, we aim to de-risk high-integrity nature projects and crowd in the institutional and local investment that African landscapes and communities urgently need,” said Ann-Marie Chidzero, Chief Investment Officer at FSD Africa Investments.

The partners will also work to strengthen carbon market expertise among local banks and investors, with the longer-term objective of increasing African institutional participation in financing biodiversity and nature-based carbon projects.