CHALLENGE
How can countries overcome the barriers to accessing climate finance?
The monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of climate initiatives, policies and investments can ascertain their efficacy in tackling climate change. Governments can track progress against national and sectoral goals, such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Businesses can identify more sustainable practices for futureproofing and diversifying incomes. And financial institutions can attract and disperse climate finance. Without this transparency, countries and the sectors within them lack the accountability to transform and, often, the finance to fund such a transformation.
Bolivia’s agricultural, forestry and land use sectors account for over two-thirds of the country’s emissions (78.82% in 2021). The country, which has seen a rising frequency of storms, floods and forest fires, can stop these emissions by halting deforestation in the Amazon and managing natural resources responsibly. However, to expand such mitigative practices, governments, producers, and financial institutions alike must be able to trace and verify their associated reductions. Through tailored MRV systems across agriculture, forestry and land use sectors that align with NDCs’ reporting and transparency requirements, Bolivia hoped to increase the country’s environmental integrity.
SOLUTION
Improving MRV systems across agriculture, forestry and other land use
Bolivia’s transformation of its agricultural, forestry and land use sectors can be addressed from three angles: policy, farming, and finance. Each of these groups has different needs, levels of understanding and ways of working. By developing tailored recommendations for policymakers, Indigenous producers and Bolivia’s Development Bank (Banco de Desarrollo Productivo, BDP), we sought to secure support for MRV systems at a time when the country faced intense forest fires and was in the midst of updating its NDC.
Together with Practical Action, a global development charity that aims to build sustainable livelihoods for people living on the frontlines of climate change, we:
Trained staff across Bolivia’s Plurinational Authority of Mother Earth (APMT), the government body that implements climate policy, on MRV. Sessions focused on tracing emissions and mitigation efforts related to agriculture and sustainable forest management.
Outlined ways in which APMT can shape its MRV systems in line with the requirements of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and international climate finance initiatives. We outlined how countries like the UK, Costa Rica and Peru enhanced their MRV processes to draw out learnings.
Conducted workshops on monitoring emissions for livestock and forestry to Bolivia’s Chamber of Agricultural Producers of the West (CAO). Separately, we taught 305 people across Tacana Indigenous communities on sustainable natural resources management and how to measure forest cover.
Set up a local MRV system for Tacana Indigenous communities. The pilot’s main focus was to monitor changes in forest cover across 6,700 hectares of land and identify further opportunities for forest conservation. The lessons learned were shared more widely with APMT to show how local data can support national reporting.
Trained 38 employees of Banco de Desarrollo Productivo to trace and report on the environmental impact of their loans across agriculture, forestry and other land use, in line with international best practice.
Created a roadmap for Banco de Desarrollo Productivo to set a Net Zero target. This included actions like gaining support from the board, measuring climate risks, calculating financed emissions, defining sustainable policies, and establishing sustainable financial products.
IMPACT
Strengthening environmental integrity in climate action
In 2025, Bolivia shared its first reduction target in its ‘Biennial Transparency Report’. Given this new ambition, tracking climate progress and assessing the impact of mitigation measures becomes more important than it has ever been; especially when it comes to building credibility and attracting the much-needed finance to fund the transition.
This project demonstrated the value of robust processes to monitor, report, and verify emission reductions. In doing so, it has instilled confidence in the social and environmental benefits of MRV systems. Bolivia now has a range of tailored MRV systems with which it can comprehend agriculture’s contribution to emissions and identify the most promising mitigation opportunities. The work has had an impact on all three groups:
APMT has begun to integrate MRV into Bolivia’s climate policy framework. This will allow Bolivia to better communicate its progress against the country’s emissions reduction target.
The Tacana Indigenous communities fully adopted the local MRV system into their regulation, providing certainty that the communities will continue to monitor their forests that is expected to increase conservation area to 4,000 hectares (up from 2,500 hectares). In addition, the Tacana Indigenous people have reported higher income from diversifying their production towards zero-deforestation goods.
Women from the Tacana Indigenous communities said that the tools and training empower them to engage in sustainable forest and natural resource management. This emphasises the importance of female leadership in climate action.
Recognising the positive response by the Tacana Indigenous people and the social benefits, APMT could seek to replicate this work with other Indigenous groups.
The capacity building helped Banco de Desarrollo Productivo become accredited to the Green Climate Fund. As the first accredited entity in Bolivia, BDP can channel more finance for mitigation projects across Bolivia’s agricultural sectors. In 2024, BDP issued Bolivia’s first green bond, certified under the Climate Bonds Standard.
Banco de Desarrollo Productivo adopted the roadmap to establish a Net Zero target and conformed to the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF). As part of this partnership, the bank will estimate its financed emissions, adding another layer of transparency to its decarbonisation journey.
The combination of the Carbon Trust’s international sustainable finance and carbon accounting expertise with Practical Action’s local knowledge in the agricultural, forestry and land use sector, Indigenous territories, and GEDSI principles created a powerful partnership, driving meaningful environmental and social change. This collaboration marks the beginning of a strong partnership, allowing us to work together on other initiatives related to emission reductions and inclusive finance in Bolivia.
The Carbon Trust and Practical Action have been great partners in our work in Bolivia. As part of UK PACT's GRCF programme, the consortium team has helped to build national capacity and strengthen MRV systems in the agricultural, forestry and land use sector. They have also supported Bolivia in meeting its Nationally Determined Contributions. The officials of Bolivia's BDP and APMT are deeply grateful for the training provided; the work has undoubtedly contributed to reducing emissions in Bolivia and fighting climate change.
Transparency is key to achieve reductions at scale and MRV systems are at the backbone of this transition. This project allowed us to enhance Bolivia’s capacities to track the impact of climate actions at the local and national level by successfully translating a much technical and complex process into actionable, tailored and easy to understand recommendations that will for sure contribute to greater climate financing and ambition in the country.
We want to thank UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) for funding this project. Similarly, we would like to thank our consortium partner, Practical Action, for bringing this often very technical topic to Indigenous communities and using it to drive environmental and social change. This work would not have had the same impact without this on-the-ground collaboration.
Please note that the project also included activities in Ecuador. For this story, we focus on the work and impact in Bolivia.
