Tropical forests store billions of tonnes of carbon, support around half of the world’s terrestrial species, and sustain the livelihoods of more than 1.6 billion people. Yet these benefits do not feature on any balance sheet.  Currently, the only way to extract significant economic value from forests is through clearance for logging, agriculture and mining.
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Emergent is a non-profit working to change these perverse economic incentives and make forests worth more alive than dead. We do this by mobilizing public and private finance at scale to support government led programs that tackle the systemic causes of deforestation across entire countries or states (known as jurisdictional REDD+ or JREDD+). Our approach uses high integrity carbon credits as a tool generate long-term, stable revenue for countries who cut emissions from forest loss. This creates strong economic incentives for sustainable growth based on healthy forests.
 
As well as delivering scale across entire countries or states, this model strengthens government ownership and supports the meaningful involvement of Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and Afro descendent Peoples, the traditional guardians of the forest, by promoting equitable sharing of proceeds and supporting their participation in deciding how revenues are invested locally to improve lives and livelihoods.
 
All credits must meet the robust criteria of independent standards, ensuring strong environmental integrity and social safeguards.