Evidence review: Forest conservation

Forests in developing countries play a critical role as sources of carbon storage and sequestration, regulators of global climate patterns as well as providing homes, resources and a sense of attachment for local communities. Land use change, particularly deforestation, contributes up to 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The GCF finances forestry projects related to both mitigation and adaptation. In terms of mitigation, the GCF has approved forests and land use projects worth over USD1.60 billion over more than 70 projects.

To support the mandate of the IEU in ensuring the GCF remains a learning institution, this evidence review builds on a previous reviews conducted by the IEU to:

• Assess the current evidence base on the effectiveness of selected forest conservation interventions in developing countries across an intervention/outcome framework
• Measure whether selected forest conservation interventions have been effective at achieving desired outcomes at the individual, household, community, firm and/or landscape levels in developing countries
• Assess which factors moderate the effectiveness of these interventions for forest conservation in developing countries

The evidence review will allow the GCF Secretariat and wider actors in climate finance to consider findings on what works in forest conservation within policy, programming and projects.