A wide-ranging Global Environment Facility work program approved on June 2, 2025 will support a new “Lemur bond” for biodiversity and resilience in Madagascar; scale up efforts to remove mercury from skin creams and the production of non-ferrous metals and cement; strengthen cooperation across four international waterways; and connect microfinance with environmentally-focused ventures in developing countries.
The $195 million allocated by the GEF Council will generate $2.6 billion from outside sources. That is equal to $13 mobilized for every GEF dollar.
In total, the latest GEF Trust Fund work program includes 14 initiatives that will take place in 35 countries, nearly half of which are Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. These efforts will enable the GEF partnership to meet its targets to enable the cooperative management of 40 shared water ecosystems, and to restore 10 million hectares of land and ecosystems in the current four-year funding period.