The current amount of green finance for forests captured by this assessment is under USD 22 billion. Since our in-depth assessment of the NYDF finance goals in 2017, overall finance for forests has increased by a minor amount (nine percent).
The amount of finance forests receive does not reflect their potential to contribute to climate change mitigation. Support to address deforestation and protect forests in tropical countries comprises less than 1.5 percent — only USD 3.2 billion — of the USD 256 billion committed by multilateral institutions and developed country donors since 2010 to climate change mitigation. The renewables sector alone has received over 100 times more commitments of finance than forests in the same time period.
There is a need for new finance, but equally, or even more necessary, is the shifting of existing funds from traditional to sustainable investments. Green finance comprises a fraction of the grey finance flowing into countries with high levels of deforestation; development finance for agriculture amounts to 15 times more than climate mitigation finance with a forestry objective.
Companies and governments continue to provide subsidies and support to activities that potentially harm forests. Even where there is interest, financial institutions and lenders largely lack the safeguards necessary to ensure that investments and finance are not supporting deforestation.
The Forest Declaration Assessment and the Forest Declaration Platform have been supported over the years by the Climate and Land Use Alliance, the Good Energies Foundation, the Bezos Earth Fund, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) of Germany, and the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), which supported this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.
This project is supported by the Climate and Land Use Alliance and the Good Energies Foundation. Research that contributed to this project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.