Governments and businesses around the world have recognized the urgent need to act on climate change, and scientists have identified powerful tools to mitigate and adapt to its effects. Now, the challenge is finding the funding necessary to translate political will and technical know-how into effective climate action.

Bolstering our planet’s first line of defense against climate change – forests and other carbon-absorbing landscapes – is one of the most immediate and cost-effective ways to avoid climate catastrophe. Tropical forests, in particular, offer a potent weapon against climate change, but they are under pressure from competing land-uses, especially agriculture, and there is often no economic reward for protecting them.

By putting finance to work in creative ways, we can incentivize forest protection and more sustainable land use on a massive scale, bending the curve toward achieving necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

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Forest Trends takes a multi-pronged approach to climate finance:

We track private as well as public finance allocated by governments around the world to protect forests, and also identify gaps in that funding. As part of this work,

We track public financing in particular for establishment of national and subnational REDD programs.

Our Ecosystem Marketplace initiative tracks both public and private flows of finance around the world designed to keep carbon stored in forests and other landscapes.

We track public and private investment in forest conservation and sustainable forest management.

 

We try to strengthen the involvement of the private sector, the biggest missing link in the fight against climate change and identify where private finance can have the biggest impact.

We leverage diverse sources of investment – public and private, international and local – to support low-carbon agriculture.

We track the potential for, and impact of, creative approaches that leverage public and private finance to create new incentives for conserving forests and improving agricultural yields at the same time – slashing greenhouse gas emissions in the process, for example in Brazil and Peru.

One promising opportunity to use forests for climate action is through a UN program known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD+. Forest Trends research has shown that as of 2015, approximately 90% of REDD+ funding in 13 key tropical forest countries came from public sources. The previous six years had seen more than $10 billion (B) cumulatively pledged to REDD+ programs.

Forest Trends also strives to equip local communities in forested areas with the tools and data they need to put REDD+ finance to work fighting climate change. Our Communities Initiative [link] helps indigenous communities strengthen their capacity to secure and manage their forests, thereby enabling them to effectively participate in and benefit from climate finance, including REDD+ mechanisms.