Halting & Reversing Deforestation


Stopping deforestation, which is responsible for 11% of global emissions, is one of the most impactful climate actions we can take. During the inaugural Drawdown Deep Dive, we heard from Project Drawdown science and policy experts, specialists in tropical forest countries, and leaders and partners of Forests, People, Climate (FPC). FPC is a global collaborative of funders, civil society, and community-based organizations seeking to halt and reverse tropical deforestation while supporting just, sustainable development. This highly promising, fundable solution was sourced for these sessions by Climate Lead, is vetted by experts, and has clearly defined outcomes associated with increased funding. Speakers provided an in-depth look at the critical role of philanthropy, impact investing, businesses, and communities in securing equitable solutions for land and people while shifting finance and markets to favor standing forests.

See below for opportunities to take action, as well as recordings, key takeaways, resources, and downloadable graphics from each session. If you have additional resources on this topic you would like to share here, please reach out to hannah.henkin@drawdown.org.

Project Drawdown is grateful to the following partners for their collaboration on this Drawdown Deep Dive:

Forests, People, Climate

Forests, People, Climate is a global collaborative of funders, civil society, and community-based organizations seeking to halt and reverse tropical deforestation while supporting just, sustainable development.

Climate and Land Use Alliance

The Climate and Land Use Alliance is a collaborative of foundations that seeks to realize the potential of forests and land use to mitigate climate change, benefit people, and protect the environment.

Climate Lead

The Drawdown Capital Coalition has partnered with Climate Lead (formerly Climate Leadership Initiative) to source and diligence any philanthropic opportunities shared with members. Climate Lead equips philanthropists who are new to climate with the information and insights they need to drive transformative solutions, in partnership with a diverse network of experts. Since 2019, Climate Lead has helped over 100 philanthropist families move major gifts totaling more than US$5 billion into high-impact climate solutions globally.

Toniic

Toniic is a global community of private asset owners seeking to steward wealth and use influence to enable a thriving world. Our members – more than 500 high net-wealth individuals, family offices and foundations from more than 25 countries – are active impact investors and philanthropists, for whom Toniic provides a vibrant community, with education, investment opportunities, impact support, and events. Toniic also builds the field of impact investing, leading by example to move money and mindsets.


Drawdown Deep Dives are designed for business leaders, impact investors, philanthropists, advisors, and the greater impact funding community. To learn more about Drawdown Capital Coalition membership, please submit an inquiry on our webpage or reach out to hannah.henkin@drawdown.org

Impact Investors

Philanthropists

Business Leaders

  • Ensure your C-suite, board, and key decision-makers understand the relationship among supply chains, deforestation, and Indigenous communities, as well as how deforestation fits within the broader context of climate change. 
  • Task procurement, sustainability, and supply chain teams with understanding Scope 3 impacts and identifying and investing in steps towards full traceability to eliminate deforestation and human rights violations, especially as it pertains to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.
  • Create targets for reducing demand for fuel, energy, paper, packaging, and animal protein, and practice consistent disclosure of progress towards targets. Urge policymakers and trade associations to encourage mandatory targets and disclosure standards.

Without taking deforestation prevention more seriously, there is simply no way we will be able to stop climate change.

Jonathan Foley, Ph.D., Executive Director, Project Drawdown

This session covered the science of forests and climate change. Jonathan Foley, Ph.D., executive director of Project Drawdown, unpacked key drivers and trends in deforestation, discussed how to break down barriers to solutions, and shared the most impactful actions to accelerate forest protection as a high-priority “emergency brake” climate solution. We also introduced Forests, People, Climate (FPC), a collaborative of philanthropic donors, civil society, and community-based organizations seeking to halt and reverse tropical deforestation while supporting just, sustainable development.

Speakers: Jonathan Foley Speakers: Jonathan Foley, Ph.D., (Executive Director, Project Drawdown), Daniel Jasper, (Senior Policy Advisor, Project Drawdown), Christina Swanson, Ph.D., (Senior Scientist, Policy and Private Sector Partnerships, Project Drawdown), Lindsey Allen, (Executive Director, Climate and Land Use Alliance)
 

Key Takeaways

Forests and Climate Change: Science, Policy, Markets, and Actors 

  • Tropical forests are biodiversity hotspots and provide key natural services that support human well-being, such as disease regulation, water cycling, and carbon storage through photosynthesis. Tropical forests hold ~40% of all land-based “living carbon” but this carbon is released into the atmosphere when the forest is cut, burned, or otherwise removed. Globally, deforestation is responsible for ~11% of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Forest loss drivers vary by region. Cattle grazing, soy production for animal feed, cultivation of palm oil, and other agriculture activities are the leading sources of human-caused tropical deforestation, ahead of forestry/timber or mining. Addressing human-driven deforestation is the most urgent action for climate mitigation since stopping deforestation halts the release of carbon immediately, while forest restoration only increases carbon uptake gradually over decades.
  • International policy, treaties, and agreements, as well as global institutions and pledges, strive to stop deforestation by 2030 through a variety of “micro” policy options (e.g., decreasing the value of agricultural products, increasing the value of standing forests, and regulating land use) and “macro” policy options (e.g., stimulating alternative sectors, consolidating the agricultural sector regionally, controlling imports and exports, and altering exchange rates).
  • Today’s voluntary carbon market suffers from serious problems with governance, transparency, carbon accounting, and environmental and social integrity. Efforts to improve the integrity of the market are underway and, when they are successful, carbon credits could be an important method for getting badly needed funding to forest protection efforts. However, use of carbon credits by entities to offset their greenhouse gas emissions is not an effective climate mitigation strategy. 

 Introduction to Forests, People, Climate (FPC) 

  • Protecting forests can reduce more than 20% of global climate emissions while uplifting forest communities. Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities currently manage 40% of all intact forests and nearly half of the global lands that are in good ecological condition.
  • Philanthropic funding is key because it can move quickly and often with a lower administrative burden than public funding. However, less than 2% of the global philanthropic giving goes to tackling the climate crisis, and of this, resources are not equitably distributed to Indigenous and community-led organizations.
  • FPC was launched in 2022 with 13 leading philanthropies seeking to achieve three things: (1) mobilize US$2 billion in new funding, especially at the local level, (2) develop strategies shared across donors and funding institutions, and (3) ensure funding and power are distributed equitably, focusing on historically excluded organizations.
  • FPC has identified three critical pathways to protect forests: 1) safeguard tropical forests and support the communities stewarding them; 2) shift markets and finance to favor standing forests; and 3) strengthen public support and advance strong policy. In collaboration with more than 600 experts and stakeholders from tropical forest countries, FPC has developed nine detailed strategies that provide a roadmap for grantmaking, action, monitoring progress, and learning.

Key Resources

Charts and Graphics

To download, click the chart or graphic you are interested in, then right-click and save the image as a PNG or JPG to your computer. All charts and graphics below are freely available to use as long as they are appropriately credited.

With an emphasis on philanthropy, this session explored critical regional strategies and solutions. On-the-ground experts in tropical forest countries and the FPC team shared their strategies for halting and reversing tropical deforestation from a climate perspective, with a focus on the priorities and philanthropic opportunities in the Brazilian Amazon, Indonesia, and Congo Basin.

Speakers: Lindsey Allen, (Executive Director, Climate and Land Use Alliance), Renata Neder (Senior Program Officer Brazil, Climate and Land Use Alliance), Joko Arif (Senior Advisor Global Climate, David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Samuel Nnah Ndobe (Congo Basin Lead, Forests, People, Climate), Caitlin Giblin (Senior Advisor on Collaborations, Climate and Land Use Alliance) 

Key Takeaways 

  • The Forest, People, Climate strategies can be found here. Each regional strategy – the Brazilian Amazon, Congo Basin, and Indonesia, focuses on leveraging economic, social, and political incentives for promoting sustainable development and advancing the land tenure and rights of Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, and Afro-Descendants.
  • Half of the world’s remaining tropical forests are found in these three regions. Data from 2022 show that 55% of forest loss occurred here; roughly half of greenhouse gas emissions from tropical forests also come from these geographies. We know it is possible to stop tropical deforestation in these regions and this progress is critical to reaching global climate goals and commitments.
  • This decade is critical to fight climate change, and we won’t be on track without protecting forests. Brazil will host the 30th Conference of Parties (COP) next year in Belém, a symbolic city in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. The timeline of Brazil’s leadership in the climate talks next year opens impactful opportunities to support collaboration among movements, civil society, and forest communities during this decade.
  • Six cross-cutting thematic strategies guide funding to places we can achieve the greatest impact, especially in local communities in the key regions: Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, & Afro-Descendants (IP, LC, & AD), Supply Chains, Strategic Communications, Private Finance, Carbon Market Integrity, and Enabling Conditions which is designed to expand civic space and the resilience of organizations. 
  • FPC addresses the well-known challenges of moving significant philanthropic funding to tropical forest regions, particularly local communities. FPC is building a diverse and dynamic network of local grantees and regional grantmakers and aims to be as flexible as possible to bring new people and new funding into this work. Interested funders should use the link in the “Take Action” section above to learn more about opportunities for supporting FPC. 

Key Resources

Intended for business leaders and impact investors, this session focused on the FPC Supply Chains strategy, featuring high-impact opportunities to halt and reverse forest loss driven by food and energy systems and to advance progress by 2030 toward the transformation of food, feed, fiber, and fuel commodity production, trade, and, consumption systems. 

Speakers: Andrea Johnson, Consultant and Advisor, Climate and Land Use Alliance, Todd Paglia, Executive Director, Stand.earth, Jade Saunders, Executive Director, World Forest ID, Hannah Mowat, Campaigns Coordinator, Fern

Key Takeaways

  • The world needs to change how we farm, transport, buy, and consume food, feed, and fiber. Examples of ways to support changes include 1) supporting campaigns that are advocating for transformations in policy and industry practices; 2) shifting commodity consumption patterns by addressing overconsumption and reducing demand for key deforestation-linked commodities; 3) supporting passage and effective implementation of regulatory measures; and 4) repurposing the financial drivers of commodity production and trade that contribute to deforestation.
  • If the global energy transition away from fossil fuels does not take land use and human rights implications seriously, both social conflict and greenhouse gas emissions could be exacerbated. Those interwoven needs can be addressed by 1) shaping narratives and aligning forest and energy-related movements; 2) reducing reliance on forests for bioenergy via strategic global campaigns; 3) ensuring the harms associated with minerals and mining needed for renewable energy transition are minimized through effective standards and technological innovations; and 4) directing financial flows toward investments that protect forests and respect rights.
  • Explore partner organizations’s approaches to implementing key components of the FPC Supply Chains Strategy: Stand.earth (Campaigning & Agricultural Commodity Supply Chains), SIRGE Coalition (Justice and Rights in the Energy Transition), Fern (Demand-side Policy), and World Forest ID (Science based commodity traceability)

Key Resources

Opportunities for Collaborating More Effectively on Supply Chains 

  • Ensure your C-suite, board, and key decision-makers understand the relationship among supply chains, deforestation, climate change, and Indigenous communities.
  • Task procurement teams with understanding the Scope 3 impacts of supply chains and identifying and investing in steps towards full traceability to eliminate deforestation and human rights issues.
  • Create targets for reducing demand for fuel, energy, paper, packaging, and animal protein, as well as disclosure.
  • Build company capacity and commitments around Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC).
  • Contact policymakers and trade associations about required traceability and due diligence practices for deforestation-free procurement.