What is ESKEN?
The Environmental and Social Knowledge Exchange Network (ESKEN) is a workspace for a community of practice involved in the environmental and social (E&S) aspects of financing deforestation-free commodity production, protection of natural ecosystems, forest landscape restoration, and other forms of sustainable land-use. This community of practice comprises representatives of sustainable land-use finance facilities and funds, investment advisors, fund managers, commercial banks, impact advisors, donors, and other organisations.
ESKEN was established in Cambridge in November 2019 through a workshop where the participants agreed on the need to share knowledge, experience, and tools to scale up action of sustainable land-use investments.
The ESKEN community of practice regularly gathers on a digital workspace for (1) sharing and discussing relevant materials such as E&S monitoring tools, E&S risk management approaches and commonly used KPIs (2) receiving feedback on tools and guidance developed by the members, and (3) hosting online events such as webinars, expert sessions, and online consultations.
ESKEN welcomes new members who are working on sustainable land use finance to join the community of practice. If you are interested, please get in touch with unep-cfu@un.org.
Past events:
- ESKEN Webinar Series 2021 | Demonstrating Positive Environmental and Social Impact of Sustainable Land-Use Finance, 24 June 2021
- ESKEN Knowledge Exchange Series 2020 | Sustainable Land-Use Financing: Standardising Environmental & Social Impact
- Webinar | Sustainable Land-Use Financing: Standardising Environmental & Social Impact, 15 October 2020
- Workshops | Sustainable Land-Use Financing: Finalising the KPI Directory Tool & It’s Application, 26 October – 2 November 2020
- Webinar | Sustainable Land-Use Financing: Mainstreaming Environmental & Social Impact, 12 November 2020
