A recent report from the United Nations paints a stark picture: countries simply aren’t investing enough to protect the world’s forests, which cover nearly a third of our planet. To hit critical international targets for climate, biodiversity, and land restoration, global annual spending on these vital ecosystems must surge to an astounding $300 billion by 2030 – a threefold increase from current levels.
Forests are, in essence, the ultimate public good, offering countless benefits to everyone on Earth, explains Gabriel Labbate, a lead author of the analysis and head of the climate mitigation unit at the U.N. Environmental Program.
These thriving natural spaces are crucial for sustaining life, serving as homes for over 80 percent of all terrestrial animals, plants, and insects. Beyond acting as vast living nurseries, they play an indispensable role in regulating global weather patterns and the climate. Through photosynthesis, trees and other flora actively pull carbon dioxide – a major greenhouse gas from fossil fuel combustion – out of the atmosphere, helping to cool our dangerously warming planet.
The report highlights a devastating trend: approximately 25 million acres of forest are lost annually due to human industries and increasingly intense wildfires. These fires, becoming more frequent and severe with a warming climate, scorched an estimated 78 million acres worldwide in 2023 and 2024 – an area roughly three times the size of Iceland. Consequently, forests during those two years absorbed only a quarter of the carbon they managed to capture a century ago.
Back in 2021, at a UN climate conference in Glasgow, over 140 nations committed to a declaration pledging to halt or reverse deforestation by 2030. Yet, despite this ambitious goal, global spending on forest protection in 2023 amounted to only about $84 billion.
This latest report meticulously compiled data from a vast array of funding sources – including both government bodies and private organizations – that contribute to safeguarding all types of forests, from the lush tropical rainforests to the frosty boreal forests of the Arctic.
Financial investment can aid forests in numerous ways. For example, public funds from governments, international aid programs, or private conservation groups can be channeled into protecting wilderness areas from destructive logging practices or supporting large-scale tree-planting initiatives.
Alarmingly, the report indicates that private entities – including banks, venture capital, and corporations – contribute less than a mere $1 for every $10 spent on forest protection and restoration. The vast majority of funding, therefore, comes from governments, meaning forests are heavily reliant on ‘a lot of taxpayer money,’ as noted by Mr. Labbate.
The lion’s share of funding for forest conservation and restoration originates from more affluent nations, with China and the United States together contributing almost half of the total global investment, the report states.
Conversely, tropical countries, often less wealthy but home to some of the planet’s most endangered forests, allocate the least resources. Frances Seymour, a senior policy adviser at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, explains that many of these nations are grappling with significant debt, making it difficult to prioritize conservation. This often forces farmers to clear land for sustenance or prompts politicians to back industries that contribute to deforestation in a bid to boost their economies.
As Ms. Seymour aptly puts it, ‘It is in everybody’s interest to protect the forest. But nobody gets paid for protecting a forest.’
The report also reveals a significant deficit in international aid directed towards tropical nations. On average, these countries spend 36 times more of their own funds on forest preservation than they receive from international initiatives like the World Bank. This disparity suggests that governments primarily focus their conservation efforts within their own national borders.
Disturbingly, the private sector’s investment landscape is heavily skewed. Companies identified by the UN as major drivers of deforestation attract almost $9 trillion in annual investments – an astronomical figure over 1,000 times greater than the private funds dedicated to protecting forests.
For example, the agriculture industry received approximately $400 billion in subsidies in 2023, despite being a primary cause of deforestation. In the Amazon rainforest alone, an area the size of a football field vanishes every six seconds, primarily to expand cattle ranches and soy farms.
While carbon markets offer a promising avenue for conservation funding – allowing businesses to compensate for emissions by investing in natural protection or restoration projects – their impact remains minimal. The report indicates that carbon credits currently account for less than 2 percent of total forest spending.
In a positive development, a group of 34 governments recently unveiled a comprehensive plan for financing forest conservation. This initiative is designed to guide discussions at the upcoming U.N. climate conference (COP30) in Brazil next month and includes specific recommendations for enhancing carbon credit systems.
Concurrently, Brazil committed $1 billion to the ‘Tropical Forests Forever Facility,’ a new fund aimed at financially rewarding countries for their efforts in preserving tropical forests, with a significant 20 percent earmarked for Indigenous communities.
Remarkably, the U.N. report underscores that Indigenous and local communities are the most effective stewards of the world’s forests, successfully managing over a third of these critical ecosystems. Despite their proven impact, they receive a paltry 13 percent of the global funding allocated for forest conservation.