On April 22, Earth Day, during the international Climate Summit, a group of governments and multinational corporations announced a ground-breaking coalition called LEAF (Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance.)
The global initiative plans to raise at least $1bn this year for large-scale forest protection and sustainable development, becoming the single most significant private-sector investment to protect tropical forests.
The coalition already includes the US, UK, and Norway governments and nine giant corporations, including Amazon, Airbnb, Bayer, Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, and Nestle.
Nathaniel Keohane, Senior Vice President at Environmental Defense Fund, said:
This is a game-changer in the fight to save tropical forests—a new model for catalyzing finance, at a scale that is truly up to the challenge.
The goal of LEAF is for businesses, NGOs and governments, to pay for high-quality emissions reductions from tropical forests, confirmed against an independent standard. “With local-level involvement, this approach can be a triple-win: for the climate, tropical forests, and for people that depend on them,” explained Manish Bapna, the World Resources Institute’s CEO and Interim President.
The coalition also offers a new approach that can help protect trees by providing the financial assurance needed for countries to prioritize guidelines that minimize deforestation. More members are expected to join the coalition in the coming months.
Keohane added:
The LEAF Coalition sets a high standard for how companies can supplement deep cuts in their own emissions by investing in additional emission reductions from tropical and subtropical forests and also by ensuring that the rights of indigenous peoples who have and who continue to protect these forests are respected and fulfilled.
This pioneering forest finance model could yield billions of dollars a year into guaranteeing the protection of trees on the scale needed to address climate change and meet universal climate goals.
