Why Forests?

  • Tropical forests contain 50% of all plants and animals on the earth’s landmasses, and support the livelihoods of up to 1.6 billion people.
  • Only 1% of the rainforest’s plant and animal species have been studied, meaning there are boundless opportunities for new medicines and discoveries.
  • Rainforests are thought to store at least 250 billion tons of carbon – equivalent to 90 years of human-induced carbon emissions.
  • A single bush in the Amazon may have more species of ants than the entire British Isles.
  • A tropical rainforest may have more than 480 tree species in a single hectare, compared with temperate forests where just six species may make up 90 percent of the trees in an entire forest.

Mobilizing at scale with the jurisdictional approach 

The urgent climate crisis requires an accelerated model of change to slow and reverse deforestation. We recognize that only national or state governments, or “jurisdictions,” have the regulatory powers and legitimacy with local communities to make the necessary difference. This is why Emergent focuses on large-scale mobilization of finance for jurisdictional-level REDD+ programs. Working across jurisdictions, we activate the funding to enable these programs to protect a minimum of 2.5 million hectares of forest. 

The jurisdictional approach is a radical evolution in the fight against deforestation. It doesn’t just look at a small piece of the landscape, but takes a holistic approach to the whole region and incorporates all projects where private actors can work together with every stakeholder group including public donors, governments, communities such as Indigenous areas, agricultural producers, and civil society. Jurisdictional-level REDD+ programs secures social and environmental safeguards, drives ever-decreasing deforestation and ensures that proceeds from credit sales furthers emissions reductions. 

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