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CLUA Priorities for Support & Geographic Focus
From grassroots to global, we support those working for an equitable, climate-safe world. Learn about what we support and where we focus.
GLOBAL
We support efforts to strengthen international and driver economy policies, financial flows, and narratives to halt and reverse forest loss as part of a just and climate-resilient world.
Priorities For Support
The Climate and Land Use Alliance focuses our support at the global level on putting equity at the core of the societal and economic transformations needed to halt and reverse forest loss as part of a just and climate-resilient world.
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Why Global?
The world needs thriving tropical forests to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and secure a climate resilient future. But profound change is needed to realize these benefits and keep the Earth’s climate within a safe range for people and the diversity of life on the planet.
Deforestation, much of it illegal, runs rampant. This widespread destruction robs the planet of much needed carbon-sequestering trees and soil, contributes to irreversible loss of biodiversity, drives conflict and crime in forest landscapes and against land defenders, and violates the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendant Peoples, and local communities in tropical forests.
To protect and restore forests at the local level, the economic and political power that incentivizes exploiting forests and people for short-term profit at the expense of long-term resilience and equity must shift.
By supporting improved policies and practices in ‘deforestation driver’ economies and improved global financial systems – and by mobilizing broader coalitions supporting that change – the conditions at the global level can favor standing tropical forests.
What We Support
We recognize the complex connections between ‘deforestation driver’ economies in the Global North and impacts in tropical forests in the Global South, and that healthy forests benefit both people living in and near forests and people far away.
We support those working across local to global scales to shape international and driver economy policies, financial flows, and narratives so that the potential of tropical forests for climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience is realized, while advancing greater social, environmental, and economic good.
WE SUPPORT EFFORTS TO:
To secure forest community rights and livelihoods, the Climate and Land Use Alliance supports efforts to increase rights recognition, alter destructive investment practices, improve policies, and channel more resources directly to forest communities.
We Support
- Full Rights Recognition
Increasing recognition and full exercise of Indigenous and community tenure rights in tropical forests. - Investments to Protect and Restore Forests and Secure Rights
Shifting public and private institutions’ and investors’ investments toward practices that protect forests and forest communities’ rights and halt violence and oppression. - Regenerative Forest Economies
Establishing policies and funding for regenerative economies and development models. - Direct Funding to Forest Communities
Channeling resources directly to Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendant Peoples, and other local communities through locally-controlled funds.
The Climate and Land Use Alliance supports the development of international policies, programs, and investments that advance good governance, ensure ambitious and accountable commitments to forests and land rights in global, mutilateral, and national climate spaces, address the impacts of environmental crime and criminal governance on tropical forest systems, and ensure trade and climate policies halt and reverse forest loss.
We Support
- High Ambition and Integrity Rights-Based Approaches
Establishing high-integrity, rights-based approaches in international climate and biodiversity processes and decisions, and ensuring commitments meet the scale of needs and responsibilities. - Forest Commitments and Resources
Mobilizing ambitious forest and climate commitments in multilateral venues to deliver action and resources. - Strong National Climate Commitments
Supporting forests and rights in nationally-determined climate commitments and their implementation in tropical forest countries. - Ending Environmental Crime and Rights Violations
Fighting environmental and related financial crimes, policies, and criminal governance, and eliminating impunity. - Regeneration and Resilience Policies
Shifting trade and climate policies in ‘deforestation driver’ economies away from exploitation and toward regeneration and resilience.
The Climate and Land Use Alliance supports work to strengthen the communications capacities of global and transnational forest protection movements and bring their stories to the global stage — bolstering their ability to coordinate collective action around their efforts and shared demands and to influence key decision-makers to take action for climate justice and rights, biodiversity conservation, and forest protection and restoration.
We Support
- Capacity for Communications
Supporting strategic communications capacity and healthy media ecosystems. - Connected Coalitions
Connecting transnational climate justice coalitions to effectively advocate for forests, climate, and rights in international governance spaces. - Strong Public Support
Increasing International public support for forest, climate justice, biodiversity conservation, and land use issues.
The Climate and Land Use Alliance supports work in the Global North and international forums to increase and direct public and private finance for tropical forest protection and climate resilience. One key focus of this work is to prompt private financial institutions to shift their portfolio towards sustainable approaches, especially for soft commodities, and to finance regenerative forest economies. Another focus is on systemic financial architecture reform in service of forest and rights agendas, including through agendas related to tax, subsidies, debt, multilateral development banks, and central banks and regulators.
We Support
- Effective Bilateral and Multilateral Finance
Ensuring bilateral and multilateral finance is coordinated, delivered, and scaled in proportion to obligations, and that key multilateral development bank reforms can reduce pressure on land and more positively align with forests and rights agendas. - Just Economic Transitions
Supporting economic transitions consistent with international commitments to climate, biodiversity, forests, and human rights, enabled by policy frameworks, public and private finance flows, and financial architecture reforms to shift economies. - Finance for Forest Communities
Increasing Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendants Peoples’, and local communities’ control over and access to nature and climate finance. - Sustainable Investments
Shifting private finance investments in transparent ways away from companies and activities driving deforestation, conflict, rights-violations, and climate change and toward companies and practices that protect forests and rights. - Private Finance Transitions
Ensuring International private finance supports just economic transitions, scales regenerative economies, and funds forest protection and restoration, and community management. - Financial Architecture Reform
Supporting targeted reforms to improve equity, relieve pressures on land, and better finance forests and rights agendas.
The Climate and Land Use Alliance supports work to shift the policies and practices of the world’s largest agribusinesses, consumer goods companies, and their financiers, to ensure high integrity in forest carbon markets, and to deliver a just energy transition to protect community rights, forest health, and climate resilience across the supply chains – and ultimately drive the transition to a just and sustainable economy.
We Support
- Deforestation- and Conflict-Free Supply Chains
Removing deforestation and rights violations from beef, leather, soy, palm oil, timber, and pulp and paper supply chains. - Lower-Emissions Foods
Supporting the transition toward sustainable, healthy, and fair global food systems. - Just Energy Transition
Protecting forests and rights in a just energy transition that respects community rights, including through responsible extraction, sourcing, and use of transition minerals, and by moving beyond bioenergy. - High Integrity in Forest Carbon Markets
Ensuring high social and environmental integrity in forest carbon markets, including by promoting rights recognition, benefit sharing, and real reductions in both fossil fuel use and land use emissions. - Just Value Chains
Ensuring forest product value chains contribute to just and inclusive economies and help support the legal and sustainable management of tropical forest systems.
Grants
We unfortunately do not accept unsolicited grant proposals.
The Climate and Land Use Alliance member foundations work closely together to identify funding opportunities and make grants aligned with our shared priorities.
Where Else We Focus
The Climate and Land Use Alliance also supports work in these tropical forest regions:
Updates
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Priorities for Support at the Global level
We support the societal and economic transformations needed to halt and reverse forest loss as part of a just and climate-resilient world.
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Short Film: Perspectives on Forests, Lands, and Rights
To learn from diverse perspectives, we interviewed leaders about their priorities for action on forests, lands, and rights. Here’s what they shared.
