Countries worldwide are falling short on funding the vital health of our planet’s forests, which cover almost a third of its surface. A new United Nations report emphasizes an urgent need to triple annual global spending to $300 billion by 2030 to achieve international climate, biodiversity, and land restoration targets.
Gabriel Labbate, a lead author of the analysis and head of the U.N. Environmental Program’s climate mitigation unit, highlighted that forests are the “quintessential definition of a public good” due to the immense benefits they offer.
Thriving forests are essential for life on Earth, housing over 80% of all terrestrial animals, plants, and insects. They also play a critical role in regulating global weather patterns and climate. As they grow, trees and other vegetation naturally absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, counteracting a portion of the greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels, which are dangerously warming our world.
Each year, approximately 25 million acres of forest are lost due to human industries and increasingly severe wildfires, fueled by a warming planet. In 2023 and 2024 alone, a staggering 78 million acres—an area equivalent to three times the size of Iceland—were consumed by fires globally. Consequently, during this period, forests absorbed merely a quarter of the carbon they sequestered a century ago.
During a U.N. climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, over 140 governments committed to a declaration aimed at halting or reversing deforestation by 2030. However, in 2023, global spending on forest protection amounted to just $84 billion.
This latest report meticulously analyzed diverse funding streams—from government agencies to private organizations—dedicated to safeguarding all types of forests, encompassing everything from lush tropical rainforests to the vast boreal forests of the Arctic.
Financial support for forests comes in many forms. This includes governments, aid organizations, or conservation groups funding the protection of wild areas from logging, or investing in extensive tree-planting initiatives.
Alarmingly, the report discovered that private entities—such as banks, venture capital firms, and corporations—contribute less than 10% of the total funds allocated for forest protection and restoration. The vast majority of funding comes from governments, meaning forests are heavily reliant on “a lot of taxpayer money,” as noted by Mr. Labbate.
Wealthier nations are the primary funders of forest conservation and restoration efforts, with China and the United States collectively providing almost half of all reported funds.
Paradoxically, tropical countries, often less affluent but home to the world’s most vulnerable forests, contribute the least. Frances Seymour, a senior policy adviser at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, explained that many of these nations are burdened by debt, making it difficult to invest in conservation. This often leads farmers seeking livelihoods or politicians aiming for economic growth to support industries that contribute to deforestation.
“Protecting forests benefits everyone,” stated Ms. Seymour, “but the challenge is that no one directly profits from simply preserving them.”
The report also revealed a significant deficit in international aid for tropical nations. These countries spend, on average, 36 times more than they receive from global programs like the World Bank for forest preservation. This indicates a tendency for governments to prioritize domestic conservation efforts over international support.
The stark reality is that in the private sector, businesses identified by the U.N. as contributing to deforestation draw in nearly $9 trillion in investments every year. This colossal sum is over 1,000 times the private funding currently dedicated to forest protection.
For example, agriculture received an estimated $400 billion in subsidies in 2023, despite being a major driver of deforestation. In the Amazon rainforest alone, an area the size of a football field vanishes every six seconds to accommodate the expansion of cattle ranches and soy farms.
Carbon markets offer a promising avenue for conservation funding, allowing businesses to offset emissions by investing in projects that restore or protect natural habitats. However, these unregulated systems currently account for less than 2 percent of total forest-related spending, highlighting their untapped potential.
Late September saw a coalition of 34 governments unveil a comprehensive plan for financing forest conservation. This initiative aims to guide discussions at next month’s COP30 U.N. climate conference in Brazil, and notably includes recommendations for enhancing carbon credit systems.
In the same impactful week, Brazil committed $1 billion to the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a fund designed to compensate nations for preserving their tropical forests, with a significant 20% earmarked specifically for Indigenous communities.
Despite Indigenous and local groups proving to be the most effective stewards of the world’s forests, managing over a third of them, the U.N. report indicates they receive a disproportionately small 13% of global conservation funding.