New Candidate Sites Announced

LLF’s portfolio to double with seven new sites

Legacy Landscapes Fund (LLF) is delighted to announce plans to fund seven new globally significant biodiversity areas in the next year.

Pending approval of the supervisory board, LLF hopes to double the size of its portfolio by signing grant agreements with an additional seven sites in 2023. 

These candidate sites have applied for either sustaining or perpetual grants and are currently developing their full proposals while undergoing ESDD studies.

The new sites were selected following our first open call for proposals in early 2022. Of the applications received, 19 met the eligibility criteria and underwent a thorough multi-stage selection process.

The grants committee, supported by IUCN, considered a variety of criteria, inter alia biodiversity value, habitat diversity, conservation approaches, integration of local communities, ecosystem services of the proposed site, and global geographic balance, before selecting seven applications to develop their concept notes into full proposals.

An additional six applications are on a waiting list and might be nominated as further candidate sites if additional funding becomes available.

The seven candidate sites are currently undergoing comprehensive independent Environmental and Social Due Diligence (ESDD) studies that will result in Environmental and Social Action Plans (ESAPs) to be integrated into their full proposals. The candidate sites are on track to submit full proposals for approval by the supervisory board by the end of Q2 in 2023. 

The new sites represent a total funding commitment of USD 100 million for five perpetual grants and USD 20 million for two sustaining grants that will be complemented by an additional USD 50 million of match funding for five perpetual grants and USD 10 million for two sustaining.