NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya is among African countries seeking to tap into the latest round of funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to fight climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution — three of the world’s most pressing environmental crises.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 20th African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) held in Gigiri from July 14 to 18, GEF Head of Programming Fred Boltz announced that negotiations for the facility’s ninth replenishment cycle are ongoing, with a final pledging session slated for March 2026.
“The GEF-9 replenishment began in May this year in Paris and will run through four negotiation meetings. We are hopeful this round will match or exceed the last, which was the largest in GEF’s history,” Boltz said.
Kenya, a long-time GEF partner, has benefited from numerous grant-funded projects focused on biodiversity conservation, sustainable forest management, land degradation, and climate resilience — often implemented through community-driven models and local capacity-building efforts.
One such initiative is a $10.6 million project launched under GEF-8 aimed at reducing human-wildlife conflict and empowering communities, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife.
Kenya is also participating in the Global Wildlife Programme and the Sustainable Forest Management Impact Programme, which supports dryland restoration.
Since 1993, GEF’s Small Grants Programme has financed over 400 grassroots environmental projects across Kenya.
Despite global cuts in development aid, Boltz said GEF funding is expected to remain strong. “We’re confident that investments in environmental integrity will continue to grow because they’re foundational to long-term economic development.”
He noted that while GEF investments have helped improve the management of more than 480 protected areas across Africa — covering over 280 million hectares — environmental health remains under-prioritised in economic frameworks.
“We must begin to measure environmental integrity as a core indicator of economic performance and success,” he said.
Since its establishment in 1991, the GEF has invested around $7.7 billion in Africa — roughly one-third of its global portfolio — and mobilised over $50 billion from governments, implementing agencies and partners.
In the past three years alone, more than $1 billion has been channelled to African countries to support efforts aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Key GEF investment categories in Africa include:
- $2.98 billion for climate change mitigation
- $2.01 billion for biodiversity
- $860 million for land degradation
- $771 million for international waters
- $667 million for chemicals and waste
One of the GEF’s flagship initiatives is the African Union’s Great Green Wall — a bold project launched in 2007 to restore degraded land across the Sahel.
Currently being implemented in 22 countries, the initiative has already secured over $14 billion in pledges.
AMCEN, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, has provided African nations with a vital platform for setting collective environmental agendas.
This year’s theme — “Four Decades of Environmental Action in Africa: Reflecting on the Past and Imagining the Future” — underscored the continent’s growing role in shaping global environmental policy.
