LONDON, (Reuters) – Multilateral lender Climate Investment Funds will back a $500 million plan to help drought-prone Ethiopia restore degraded land, protect its forests and bolster food security, it said on Wednesday.

CIF’s board said it had agreed a $37 million investment from its Nature, People, and Climate programme that it expects to mobilise $492 million in co-financing from other investors, including the World Bank and African Development Bank.

Most Ethiopians live in rural areas and rely on agriculture yet more than half of the country is experiencing some level of land degradation and around 11 million hectares are in danger of turning into desert, CIF said.

The funding is expected to help restore more than 320,000 hectares of wild Arabica coffee forests, farmlands, and rangelands in the Amhara, Oromia, South Ethiopia, and Somali regions and create an online registry of the country’s forests.

“This programme is really trying to get at how climate change and land degradation are undermining the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia,” said Paul Hartman, the lead for CIF’s nature programmes.

As well as helping reduce poverty and increase economic sustainability, the plan, created by the government, aims to increase agricultural productivity and improve food security.

As countries gather in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh for global talks on the issue of land degradation, Hartman said it was important for countries to weave the issue through their plans to combat climate change and biodiversity loss.

While around half the money targeted by Ethiopia had already been allocated by co-investors to projects, the rest would likely come from private and philanthropic investors in the months ahead, Hartman added.

Projects to receive funding will include those focused on afforestation and reforestation, regeneration of soil health and water conservation, and sustainable farming.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Christina Fincher)