Claude Gascon, GEF Interim CEO and Chairperson:
Economies, communities, and the biodiversity of our planet depend on healthy forests. On this International Day of Forests, the Global Environment Facility reaffirms its commitment to protecting, valuing, and investing in forests and demonstrates how forest conservation and economic development are complementary.
Since its establishment in 1991, the GEF has invested around $6 billion in forest conservation and sustainable management across the globe — from the Amazon to the Congo basins, from the forests of Southeast Asia to those from West Africa. This commitment reflects the understanding that protecting forests, and notably primary forests, is an investment in the natural capital that underpins food security, water supply, livelihoods, and economic resilience for billions of people.
In the current four-year funding period, GEF-8, forests received $1.8 billion in support from the GEF. At the heart of this ambitious investment is the Amazon, Congo, and Critical Forest Biomes Integrated Program, a $293 million initiative supported by over $1.4 billion in co-financing. Spanning 27 countries across five major biomes — the Amazon, Congo, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the Guinean Forests of West Africa, and Mesoamerica. It builds on decades of earlier investments, including the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program, now in its third phase with a cumulative investment of $314 million, and the Congo Basin Forest Integrated Program, in its second phase, which together with its GEF-7 predecessor has secured over $178 million in GEF funding for the Congo Basin.
These programs are about people as much as they address forest protection. In the Congo Basin, for example, GEF-supported work is directly improving the livelihoods of an estimated 65 to 80 million people who depend on forests for their survival — building green enterprises, improving food security, and developing sustainable value chains that put conservation income into local hands.
Our work recognizes that forests also provide crucial economic benefits. The ecosystem services that forests provide — clean water, climate regulation, pollination, soil stability — underpin national economies in ways that transcend GDP figures. Through the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program, the GEF is helping countries like Brazil and Colombia manage over 101 million hectares of forest land while developing sustainable financing mechanisms and private sector partnerships that demonstrate the complementarity of conservation and economic growth.
Across all our forest programs, the GEF has made the full and meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities central. For example, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are active participants in the design and governance of the Congo Basin Forest Integrated Program and its related projects. They are also the main stakeholders involved in the development of socio-bioeconomy and value chains of non-timber forest products in the Amazon.
Looking ahead, the GEF will continue to scale its ambition, strengthen its partnerships, and deepen its engagement with the countries, communities, and peoples who are the frontline stewards of the world’s forests. Investing in forests is investing in economies. We invite everyone to join us.
