A recent United Nations report reveals a stark truth: the world isn’t spending nearly enough to protect its vital forests. To safeguard these crucial ecosystems and achieve global climate, biodiversity, and land restoration targets, annual spending must dramatically increase to $300 billion by 2030 – a threefold rise from current levels.
Gabriel Labbate, a lead author of the analysis and head of the climate mitigation unit at the U.N. Environmental Program, emphasized that forests are the “quintessential definition of a public good” due to their immense benefits to all.
Thriving forests are essential for life on Earth. They serve as home to over 80% of all land animals, plants, and insects, while also playing a critical role in regulating global weather patterns and climate. As they grow, trees and other plants naturally absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, helping to counteract the greenhouse gases released from burning fossil fuels that are dangerously warming our planet.
The report paints a grim picture: approximately 25 million acres of forest are lost annually, primarily due to human industries and increasingly intense wildfires fueled by a warming planet. For example, in 2023 and 2024 alone, global wildfires ravaged an astonishing 78 million acres—an area equivalent to three times the size of Iceland. This widespread destruction means that forests in those years absorbed only a quarter of the carbon they managed to capture a century ago.
Back in 2021, over 140 governments committed at a U.N. climate conference in Glasgow to halt or even reverse deforestation by 2030. Despite this ambitious pledge, global spending on forest protection only reached about $84 billion in 2023, highlighting a significant funding gap.
This comprehensive new report meticulously examined various funding sources—both governmental and private—dedicated to preserving all types of forests, from the lush tropical rainforests to the vast boreal forests of the Arctic.
Funding can be channeled in numerous ways to benefit forests. This includes governments, aid initiatives, or conservation groups investing in protecting wilderness from logging or supporting widespread tree-planting campaigns.
A key finding of the report is that private institutions—such as banks, venture capital firms, and corporations—contribute less than 10% of the total funds allocated to forest protection and restoration. The vast majority comes from governments, meaning, as Mr. Labbate noted, forests are heavily reliant on “a lot of taxpayer money.”
Wealthier nations largely drive forest conservation efforts, with China and the United States collectively providing almost half of all global funding.
Conversely, tropical countries, often less wealthy yet home to some of the planet’s most endangered forests, allocate the least amount of funds. Frances Seymour, a senior policy adviser at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, explained that many of these nations are grappling with debt, hindering their ability to invest in conservation. Consequently, the need for economic growth or a livelihood often pushes farmers and politicians to support industries that lead to deforestation.
“It is in everybody’s interest to protect the forest,” Ms. Seymour asserted, “but nobody gets paid for protecting a forest.” This highlights a fundamental challenge in conservation financing.
The report also identified a significant shortfall in international aid for tropical countries. On average, these nations spend 36 times more of their own resources on forest preservation than they receive from global initiatives like the World Bank. This disparity suggests a tendency for governments to prioritize domestic conservation efforts.
Alarmingly, the private sector annually invests nearly $9 trillion in companies that the U.N. identifies as likely drivers of increased deforestation. This figure is more than a thousand times the private funding dedicated to protecting forests.
Agriculture, a major cause of deforestation, received approximately $400 billion in subsidies in 2023. This imbalance is particularly evident in the Amazon rainforest, where an area the size of a football field is cleared every six seconds to expand cattle ranches and soy farms.
Carbon markets have emerged as a potential funding mechanism for conservation, allowing businesses to offset greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that protect or restore natural habitats. However, the report found that carbon credits currently account for less than 2% of total forest spending.
In a promising development, a coalition of 34 governments unveiled a forest conservation finance plan in late September. This initiative aims to guide discussions at the upcoming U.N. climate conference (COP30) in Brazil, and it includes proposals for enhancing the effectiveness of carbon credits.
That same week, Brazil committed $1 billion to the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a new fund designed to compensate nations for preserving their tropical forests, with a notable 20% of the funds earmarked for Indigenous communities.
Despite their proven effectiveness in safeguarding over a third of the world’s forests, Indigenous and local groups receive a disproportionately small share—just 13%—of global forest conservation funding, the U.N. report highlights.