– but how do we create them? New report showcases an emerging class of business, with real returns for people and planet
The world’s forests are an irreplaceable form of natural capital, underpinning economic development and human well-being. They support 1.6 billion rural people; billions more rely on their regulation of global systems such as rainfall and stable climate. And yet forests are still degraded and destroyed.
However, a new investible sector is emerging in forest economies. Published today, the Food and Land Use Coalition’s Prosperous Forests report presents an assessment of 200+ innovative business models that that exist across the tropical belt, and the significant potential they hold to halt and reverse forest loss.
Over 20 of the regenerative models supported by Partnerships for Forests are featured – from a pioneering native ‘seed recipe’ that restores degraded land in Brazil, to premium coffee in Ethiopia’s old-growth forests. Diverse, productive and climate-resilient, these forest economies are an essential part of the nature-based solutions toolkit for avoiding runaway climate change.
But these models need to be scaled up, fast – as much as 20% annual growth over the next decade – to effectively halt and reverse forest loss in the tropics. This requires a substantial, proactive and sustained commitment by the business and investment community.
For farmers and landholders, and for the commodity traders, financers and industry associations along the value chain, the report gives a set of structured recommendations for increasing scale and impact in the most vulnerable 20% of remaining tropical forest.
Read Prosperous Forests.
