European Union and CIFOR-ICRAF Sign Two Strategic Agreements Advancing Global Leadership on Nature, Innovation, and Sustainable Investment
12 December 2025, Kenya: The European Union and CIFOR-ICRAF today signed two major partnership agreements that establish a new model for how the world invests in and benefits from nature. Thrivelands is a EUR 20 million global initiative designed to accelerate sustainable land management in the world’s drylands. The Global Exchange in Natural and Genetic Resources (GENE-LINK) is a 4 year, EUR 4 million initiative to expand fair access to genetic resources, build capacity in biodiversity-rich regions, ensure transparent benefit-sharing, and help countries take part in emerging bio-economies.
Drylands are vital ecosystems that support more than two billion people, produce 44 percent of global food, host half the world’s livestock, and are central to climate stability and economic resilience. However, drylands do not feature prominently on agendas for food security, stability, and economic growth. Thrivelands aims to shift this narrative, and address these challenges through integrated landscape approaches, community-led innovation, targeted finance, and stronger data-driven decision-making.
GENE-LINK will connect biodiversity-rich regions in the Global South with European research institutions and industry. Together, these initiatives position nature as a strategic asset for resilience, innovation, and economic transformation.
They also build on years of joint EU–Africa collaboration, including lessons from Regreening Africa and Knowledge for Great Green Wall Action, which have shown that restoration at scale is both feasible and economically compelling. Through the EU’s Global Gateway strategy, which strengthens sustainable investments in partner regions, Thrivelands and GENE-Link expand this foundation by mobilising investment, strengthening policy environments, and scaling science-based solutions for both land restoration and fair, transparent bio-innovation.
“The European Union is proud to launch this partnership with CIFOR-ICRAF at a time when dryland communities around the world are facing unprecedented climate and land degradation challenges,” said Marjeta Jager, Deputy Director-General for International Partnerships at the European Union. “This partnership reinforces the EU’s commitment to working with global science leaders like CIFOR-ICRAF to restore degraded land, support communities, and deliver sustainable economic opportunities in line with the EU’s Global Gateway strategy.”
“Together, these initiatives position nature as a strategic asset for resilience, innovation, and economic transformation,” said Éliane Ubalijoro, CEO of CIFOR-ICRAF. “This partnership with the EU embodies a shared conviction: that drylands are not marginal or forgotten spaces, but strategic landscapes – rich with opportunity, ecological intelligence, and the potential to drive resilience, economic vitality, and sustainable prosperity for millions.”
Background
Thrivelands: Transforming drylands into engines of resilience
Thrivelands aims to transform drylands into engines of resilience through systems change across policy, finance, practice, and people – and make dryland restoration a driver of climate resilience, food security, livelihoods and peace.
Drylands are among the most fragile yet vital ecosystems on the planet – they are home to one in three people, half the world’s livestock, and 44% of the global food system. Yet they are degrading fast and recovering slowly. With warming in drylands occurring at twice the global average, these regions face intensifying water stress, biodiversity loss, and livelihood insecurity. Up to 700 million people are at risk of displacement by 2030, with degradation contributing to poverty, food crises, conflict, and instability. At the heart of the dryland challenge lies a transformative opportunity. Long viewed as marginal, drylands have the potential to become the engine of climate resilience and nature-positive economic transformation.
Sustainable Land Management (SLM), including restoration, is a strategic entry point to build this resilience – supporting food and water security, climate adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity, and peace. In drylands, SLM offers cost-effective and scalable solutions that restore soil health, unlock inclusive economic opportunities, and stabilise supply chains through improved productivity.
GENE-LINK: Building fair and transparent bio-innovation partnerships
The Global Exchange in Natural & Genetic Resources (GENE-LINK) initiative will connect biodiversity-rich regions in the Global South with European research institutions and industry. It builds the enabling conditions for lawful, equitable, and traceable bio-innovation at a time when global markets require transparency and due diligence.
The project will strengthen policy and regulatory conditions for investment-ready biodiversity innovation; build institutional capacity among research actors in the Global South; improve fair and traceable trade in bio-based products; and create a transparent ecosystem of trust that aligns conservation and business incentives.
Global Gateway:
The EU’s Global Gateway is a strategy to boost smart, clean, and secure investments in partner regions, with a strong focus on sustainable development, climate, and inclusive economic growth. It prioritises partnerships that enhance regional stability, strengthen value chains, and deliver long-term impact for communities. The two new initiatives, Thrivelands and GENE-Link, contribute directly to Global Gateway’s objectives. Thrivelands by mobilising high-quality investment for climate-resilient dryland landscapes, and GENE-Link by advancing transparent, equitable, and innovation-driven bioeconomies that benefit biodiversity-rich countries and their communities.
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