Norway has been by far the biggest donor of funds to protect tropical forests under REDD+ and Brazil the largest recipient to date, a report found.
But wide differences in the amount pledged and received remain amid a lack of co-ordinated global action, according to a study by Forest Trends, an industry, investor and NGO coalition that promotes market-based approaches to forest protection.
The REDD eXpenditures study tracked the money trail in 13 countries that account for 65% percent of the globe’s tropical forest cover under REDD+ over 2009-2014.
It analyses more than $6 billion of the nearly $10 billion that has been committed or pledged to REDD+ programs.
Key findings:
- Of the $3.7 billion committed 60% or $2.2 billion came directly from individual donor countries.
- Norway has contributed nearly half. Germany, Japan and the US committed a combined total of $730 million, and the UK, Australia and France contributed most of the remainder.
- The private sector contributed 10% of all REDD+ finance commitments tracked in these 13 countries.
- Brazil and Indonesia together received nearly two-thirds of all funding pledged or committed.
- Brazil’s Amazon Fund received the most, $867 million from Norway by the end of 2014.
- Payments of promised funds have grown steadily, with 62% of all committed funds paid out by the end of 2014. Most of the money has gone directly to government agencies.
- The percentage of payments paid out to participating countries varies dramatically, from Brazil getting 91% of its promised funding, to Mexico, getting just 5%.
