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The report High-risk forests, high-value returns: A co-benefits assessment for decision-makers examines the global significance of conserving “high-risk forests” or tropical forests with high deforestation risk, covering about 391 million hectares.  It finds that these forests, while most at risk of being lost, are also among the most essential to people and the planet. Protecting them prevents major carbon emissions and delivers multiple co-benefits, including water and soil regulation, rainfall recycling, pollination, food security, and livelihoods for 25 million materially poor people who depend on fuelwood and non-timber products. Conservation of these forests also helps avoid an estimated US$81 billion in climate-related damages annually.  The report highlights that these ecosystem services are particularly critical for women and Indigenous Peoples, whose well-being and resilience are closely tied to forest resources. While acknowledging potential trade-offs with agriculture and timber use, it emphasizes that integrating development and protection can maximize shared benefits. By combining spatial data on forest value and deforestation risk, the report offers policymakers, investors, and governments practical guidance to direct finance and action where it delivers the greatest climate, biodiversity, and social returns.

The first State of Finance for Forests (SFF) report: Unlock. Unleash. Realizing forest potential requires tripling investments in forests by 2030 provides a global overview of public and private forest finance in 2023, comparing current flows with the investments needed to realize forests’ potential to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation.  It integrates key private finance channels and nature-related asset classes such as certified commodity supply chains, impact investing, carbon and biodiversity markets, philanthropic funding, and private capital mobilized through public finance. The report finds that forests remain significantly underfunded: annual investment must increase from US$84 billion in 2023 to US$300 billion by 2030 and US$498 billion by 2050, leaving an annual gap of about US$216 billion.  Private forest finance remains modest at US$7.5 billion in 2023, with most flows directed to lower-risk markets rather than tropical commodities that drive the bulk of deforestation. At the same time, potentially environmentally damaging subsidies reached around US$406 billion in 2023, and private financial institutions provided an estimated US$8.9 trillion in active financing to companies with high deforestation risk as of November 2024.