Together with partners around the world, Forest Trends pioneers innovative finance for conservation, promoting healthy forests, sustainable agriculture, clean water, robust climate action, biodiverse landscapes, and strong communities.
Our programs and initiatives publish timely research, bring together diverse actors, and apply these approaches to make a difference on the ground, often blazing trails for bold and far-reaching policies in the process.
Flagship Work
Forest Trends protects critical ecosystems through creative environmental finance, markets, supply chains, and other incentive mechanisms. We build diverse coalitions with governments, local and indigenous communities, and business to ensure that all stakeholders are engaged and benefit from conservation.
Four years after Myanmar’s military coup, what does the latest trade data show? ![]()
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Our team has updated our 2025 analysis on timber, sanctions, and conflict in Myanmar’s forest sector. Using the most recent official trade data, the briefing finds that more than US$1.45 billion in forest products have been traded with Myanmar since the coup, despite ongoing international sanctions. ![]()
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Our report highlights major discrepancies between reported imports and exports, ongoing risks of sanctions evasion, and the need for coordinated international action to prevent illicit timber trade from financing conflict and environmental harm. ![]()
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Check out the updated analysis and key recommendations here: bit.ly/Myanmar_Update![]()
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#Myanmar #IllicitTrade #Timber
Landesa and Forest Trends have released a rights-based protocol to better integrate Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (#FPIC) across regulated and voluntary carbon markets. ![]()
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Grounded in instruments such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and ILO Convention 169, this protocol makes clear that FPIC is not a one-time approval. It is a continuous, rights-based process that gives Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples (IPs, LCs, & ADs) the meaningful ability to say yes, no, or yes with conditions. ![]()
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By strengthening consultation, tenure safeguards, benefit sharing, and gender inclusion, robust FPIC processes can reduce risk and support more durable climate and community outcomes. ![]()
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Read the full protocol here: bit.ly/FPIC_Protocol
Welcome back to Meet the FT team! This month, meet Devika Jaipuriar, Manager of our Institutional Budgets and Grants. ![]()
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Dev brings many years of experience in non-profit operations, grant/contract procurement and management, budgeting, and financial management from World Resources Institute (WRI), where she supported the Energy Program, Sustainable Finance Center, and Climate Program during her tenure. During her time at WRI, she not only became a master at successfully managing day-to-day financial operations, but she also assisted in the growth of multiple teams by ushering in several impactful grant agreements via donors from a wide variety of government agencies (both US and international), foundations, and private corporations. ![]()
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Since joining Forest Trends in 2021, she has rapidly moved from program-level to institutional-level financial and grant management under the leadership of the CFO's office. Devika holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology & Environmental Studies from Binghamton University in New York and is currently working towards her Master of Science in Business Analytics at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.![]()
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Fun fact about Dev: In early June, she is heading on a week-long Global Course as part of her masters program in Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia, where she will have the unique opportunity to visit with and interview companies in the technology/data analytics field.
We’re pleased to formally announce a new Memorandum of Understanding between ADERASA (the Latin American association of water utility regulators), The Nature Conservancy , and Forest Trends. ![]()
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At its core, this partnership recognizes a simple but powerful idea: healthy ecosystems are essential to the reliability, resilience, and long-term sustainability of our drinking water systems. ![]()
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By working through ADERASA’s regional network, this collaboration aims to strengthen the role of drinking water regulators in promoting nature-based solutions for water security across Latin America and the Caribbean, supporting the conditions under which utilities can responsibly and effectively invest in nature. ![]()
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More to come but today is an important milestone! ![]()
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Read more about our work at: bit.ly/ADERASA_TNC_MOU
Today, it’s more profitable to destroy forests than protect them.![]()
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At Forest Trends, we’re changing that equation by driving innovation in environmental finance, so that resilient ecosystems and thriving communities come first. Your support makes this work possible.![]()
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If you believe in markets that respect nature’s value, please consider donating and joining us in this critical effort: bit.ly/ForestTrends-Donate
The private sector is the fastest growing segment of the Nature-based Security (NbS) for water landscape. Our recent report, Doubling Down on Nature, showed that private sector investments have increased over 30x over the last decade, reaching $345M in 2023. Despite this rapid growth, it still represents less than one percent of global investment in NbS for water. This limited share reflects a fundamental challenge: private investment in NbS is often constrained by the inherently public nature of the benefits these projects provide. ![]()
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Most private investment in NbS for water is driven by regulation. In 2023, more than two-thirds of private investment ($239M, or 69%) were directly required by regulation (e.g., as a fee on water use or pollution) or were implemented to meet regulatory requirements. The largest single driver of private investment was the California Climate Investments program, which invests revenues generated from the state’s greenhouse Cap and Trade program into initiatives that reduce greenhouse gases. Of the $1.7B invested by the program in 2023, we estimate $222M was spent on NbS initiatives that included water security objectives, such as CAL FIRE’s Forest Health Program and the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Wetlands Restoration program, among others. ![]()
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Read our full findings at bit.ly/NbSReport
Welcome back to Meet the FT team! This month, meet Khin Saw Htay, Policy Analyst for our Forest Policy, Trade, and Finance Initiative. ![]()
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Khin’s work is driven by a simple but powerful belief: good governance works best when people are at its center. She works closely with local communities, civil society, and local authorities in resource-rich and conflict-affected areas to make natural resource governance more inclusive, practical, and trusted.![]()
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In her role at Forest Trends, Khin leads research and engagement on the political economy of natural resource conflict, strengthens governance practices, and helps develop policy pathways for alternative forest governance. Her work sits at the intersection of governance, local community participation, peacebuilding, and environmental sustainability. She believes that when people have a meaningful role in decision making, conflicts are easier to manage and cooperation becomes possible.![]()
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Before joining Forest Trends, Khin worked with the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) on governance reforms in the mining and oil and gas sectors, with a focus on accountability of state-owned economic enterprises. She also served as a technical advisor and coordinator to the Myanmar Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) National Coordination Secretariat, supporting national transparency processes and multi-stakeholder engagement. Khin holds a Master of Public Administration from Yangon University of Economics and is completing a Master of Environmental Science at Chiang Mai University.![]()
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Fun fact about Khin: A defining moment for her was during Myanmar’s opening between 2012–2013. She saw how good governance can literally open doors—to opportunity, trust, and global connections. That experience is why she is passionate about people-centered governance as a pathway to peace, resilience, and sustainable development.
While most investment in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for water comes from large, nationally-funded programs, an important shift is underway.![]()
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We’re seeing growing investment by water users who directly depend on healthy watersheds. This includes investments by cities and water utilities securing clean, reliable water for residents, as well as companies—such as beverage and technology companies—investing to safeguard the water supplies their bottling factories and data centers depend on. ![]()
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Our report, Doubling Down on Nature, found that these user-driven investments totaled nearly $2B in 2023, representing 2.9x growth over the last decade. Within user-driven investments, investments by utilities dominate in Europe, Oceania, and Asia (outside of China). Investments by subnational governments play a dominant role in China, Latin America & the Caribbean, the US, and Canada, while the private sector leads user-driven investments in Africa. ![]()
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Discover our other findings at www.forest-trends.org/publications/doubling-down-on-nature/ ![]()
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#WaterSecurity #NatureBasedSolutions #Water #NbS
🌳 REPORT UPDATE 🌳![]()
Now available in English, Portuguese, and Spanish!![]()
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Despite managing half the world’s land and protecting 80% of its biodiversity, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPs & LCs) receive only a fraction of global climate and conservation finance directly.![]()
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Our State of Climate and Conservation Finance for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities 2025 report reveals how billions of dollars in pledges are failing to reach the ground and what must change. With new Portuguese and Spanish editions, this critical data is now accessible to more of the communities, practitioners, and decision-makers shaping climate finance.![]()
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Key findings:![]()
🟢 Less than 5% of multilateral climate finance reaches IPs & LCs directly![]()
🟢 Carbon markets rarely require revenue sharing or transparent reporting![]()
🟢 Systemic barriers continue to exclude communities from accessing funds![]()
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But there is a way forward. The report outlines solutions rooted in trust, tenure, and transparency to ensure climate finance flows directly, fairly, and effectively to the communities who safeguard the world’s forests.![]()
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Read in in Spanish: bit.ly/4q5wDLR![]()
Read in Portuguese: bit.ly/4pVLJ6j![]()
Read in English: bit.ly/487QQLz![]()
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#ClimateFinance #IndigenousRights #ConservationFinance
What does demand look like for the voluntary carbon market in 2026? To get an early read, Forest Trends' Ecosystem Marketplace surveyed a sample of carbon project developers and brokers in late 2025 on how buyer behavior, pricing trends, and procurement activity compare with where the market was six months ago.![]()
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Read on at the link below.![]()
www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/articles/vcm-demand-outlook-in-2026/
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Mar 3, 2026
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Feb 23, 2026
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Jan 21, 2026
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