On 28 October 2026, UNU-IAS co-organized a side event at the 2026 UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17). Held at the Food and Agriculture Pavilion and hosted by CGIAR, the event discussed the funding gaps in landscape governance and how to sustain the coordination, facilitation and participation needed to sustain integrated landscape approaches.
Opening the session, Suneetha M. Subramanian (Research Fellow, UNU-IAS) noted that landscape approaches brought diverse stakeholders together to manage landscapes and seascapes and conserve biodiversity, but that their success for people and nature depended on effective governance sustained over time. Tom Derr (Collaborator, Persimmon Co-Lab) presented findings from the UNU-IAS report The True Cost of Governance in Integrated Landscape Approaches, based on surveys of about 30 landscape initiatives worldwide. He highlighted that governance functions were largely sustained by institutional goodwill and volunteer time, while funding went mainly to implementation. The report recommends making governance a specific budget line in all projects and accounting for it in public budgets.
Cargele Masso (Principal Scientist, International Livestock Research Institute) stressed that effective landscape governance depended on inclusive mapping of landscape actors — including pastoralists, farmers and Indigenous Peoples — and on capacity strengthening so all stakeholders could contribute meaningfully. Drawing on the Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative (COMDEKS) programme, Rissa Edoo (Partnerships Specialist, UNDP) highlighted that trusted facilitators and coordinators were central to moving stakeholders from competition to collaboration, yet the cost of building trust was rarely financed or captured in donor reporting.
Participants called for greater attention to the resilience of governance systems as people, institutions and priorities change, and suggested reframing the debate around the benefits of governance rather than its costs. Mr. Derr noted that sustained participation is often rooted in hands-on involvement in implementation, and that landscapes themselves could be recognized as participants in governance.
Turning to finance, Paule Gros (CEO, BiodivEarth) observed that funders often avoided governance because it appeared long-term and difficult to define. She suggested presenting it as a medium-term investment, monitoring governance functions transparently, and drawing on trust funds and contributions from local beneficiaries. Bhushan H. Sethi (1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People) argued that public finance should come first, beginning with redirecting existing government spending towards landscape approaches, with official development assistance supporting policy coherence before private investment follows. Panellists also noted that identifying stakeholders who lost out from weak governance could help mobilize them as investors.
Looking ahead, Mr. Derr pointed to the need to examine the power imbalances that can arise when new funding or governance arrangements enter a landscape, noting that investing in governance ultimately meant investing in relationships. In closing, Dr. Subramanian emphasized that the report was one step in an ongoing collaborative process and invited more partners to join efforts to strengthen support for landscape governance.
A recording of the event is available on YouTube.
