ACTION AREA 1 – INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION ON THE SUSTAINABLE LAND USE ECONOMY AND SUPPLY CHAINS.

“We can ensure commodities are grown, traded and consumed sustainably”

Our global food and land use system is a leading driver of environmental damage. It contributes approximately 30 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, and it is the leading cause of the continuing conversion of the world’s tropical forests, grasslands, wetlands and other remaining natural habitats. Decoupling economic development from deforestation and forest degradation is complex and requires international collaboration by public and private sector actors to invest in and scale more productive, regenerative techniques for food production and new approaches to protecting forests and other critical ecosystems. A number of governments, for example, are already engaging on solutions through the FACT Dialogue, which aims to promote the sustainable development and trade of agricultural commodities while protecting forests and other critical ecosystems. Key private sector groups such as the agricultural commodity traders and consumer goods companies are also collaborating to drive the transition towards deforestation and conversion free agricultural commodities.

ACTION AREA 2 – MOBILISING PUBLIC AND DONOR FINANCE TO SUPPORT IMPLEMENTATION.

“[we can] guarantee that pledged money flows to people and the forests they rely on”

Public and other donor finance continues to play a critical role in helping lower income countries to reduce deforestation, increase forest landscape restoration, and ensure ecosystem resilience. While there has been an increasing trend in donor pledges, collectively, it has not met the scale of the demand, nor the full range of needs. There is also call for greater coordination of donor financing to better leverage other sources of finance, and a need for enhanced transparency in tracking donors finance commitments. The Global Forest Finance Pledge and the COP26 Congo Basin Joint Donor Statements are among two initiatives seeking to mobilise finance for the protection, restoration, and sustainable management of forests.

ACTION AREA 4 – POWER FOREST GUARDIANS

Supporting initiatives led by Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

“We can work with and support indigenous peoples who have lived in harmony with the natural world for millennia, to continue their essential role as forest guardians.”

Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPs and LCs) play a critical role in protecting tropical forests and preserving vital ecosystem services. With territories covering over 50% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, Indigenous People contribute to global climate change mitigation, biodiversity preservation, and inclusive and sustainable development. But their ability to sustain this stewardship and contribute to national and global forest, biodiversity, climate and other sustainable development goals is threatened and/or limited when tenure rights are not recognized, secured and protected.  The ability of IP and LCs to secure such rights and contribute to reducing deforestation and improve ecosystem integrity are further limited by insufficient access to finance. The FCLP will work with platforms such as the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC), which represent people living in forest territories across the globe, and advocate for their interests including for land rights. Ensuring a greater share of climate finance is channelled directly to organisations led by IPs and LCs is a core ambition of the COP26 Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Forest Tenure Joint Statement.

ACTION AREA 5 – STRENGTHENING AND SCALING CARBON MARKETS FOR FORESTS

“[we can] scale and strengthen carbon markets to support forest countries in achieving their climate and sustainable development goals ”

Many of the tropical forest countries that have made important progress over the past decade or more on REDD+ are assessing how to strategically engage in voluntary and compliance carbon markets as a source of finance to reach their forest, climate and sustainable development goals. However, there are several challenges and barriers to the strengthening and scaling of such markets. For example, while demand for forest carbon credits increases, growth is constrained as tropical forest countries face capacity and technical barriers to participating in markets. There are also ongoing discussions and a lack of consensus on the role of different types of credits and there are divergent views on how to ensure that such markets are high integrity and delivering in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. For the voluntary carbon market, several initiatives have launched in recent years that seek to clarify issues related to supply and demand side integrity with several institutions releasing guidance documents to this end (e.g., IC-VCM, VCMI, NCS Alliance, and TFCI). Other initiatives such as the LEAF Coalition supports jurisdictional programmes to help tropical countries move more rapidly towards ending deforestation.

ACTION AREA 6 – BUILDING INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS AND INCENTIVES TO PRESERVE HIGH-INTEGRITY FORESTS

“[we can] develop partnerships to protect high integrity forests”

Forests largely free of significant modification – known as high integrity forests – make up about 40% of remaining forests. It is well acknowledged that these forests perform essential services: carbon sequestration, climate regulation, biodiversity preservation and support to livelihoods. Current mechanisms for financing the preservation of the planet’s remaining high-integrity forests are proving insufficient and/or unsustainable for many lower income countries. New forms of incentives that can mobilize public and private sector finance are needed at the scale to ensure the essential services provided by high-integrity forests are preserved and increased.