A dozen French companies came together to help communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America against the environmental degradation, climate change and poverty.
The Livelihoods Fund encourages agricultural practices to produce more food while protecting natural resources. Danone is at the origin of this project. Other companies are: Schneider Electric, Crédit Agricole SA, Michelin, Hermes, SAP, Caisse des Dépôts Group, La Poste, Firmenich, Voyageurs du Monde, Mars Inc. and Veolia.
These companies have established two investment funds known as Livelihoods Carbon Fund (LCF) and the Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming (L3F).
Produce more food while protecting natural resources
The LCF, created by ten companies in 2011, is based on the carbon economy to create social, environmental and economic benefits such as ecosystem restoration, agro-forestry and rural energy. They aim to improve food security of rural communities and boost farmers’ incomes. In return, these companies benefit from carbon credits with high social value that they can use to help offset unavoidable carbon emissions.
The L3F, created in 2015, makes supply chains of investors more sustainable to create value for all. 120 million Euros was earmarked for the next ten years under the L3F that will affect some two million people while 200 000 farms will be converted into sustainable farming practices.
These funds are timely because according to the 2015 annual report of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) entitled ‘The State of Food Insecurity in the World’, the number of people in a state of undernourishment amounted to 795 million in 2015.
Among the projects, we hold those in Africa that have been beneficial in Senegal and Burkina Faso, and the latest is a 3.5 million Euros dairy and agro-forestry project in Kenya, which should reach 30,000 farmers. India, Indonesia, Guatemala, Peru are also concerned with Livelihoods. We will report on each of these interesting projects in our future features.
