On August 11, 2014 at the GCF Annual Meeting in Acre, Brazil, GCF Governors from across the world launched the Rio Branco Declaration committing their states and provinces to reducing deforestation by 80% by 2020 with performance-based funding from the international community. Through the Declaration, the Governors are pledging a substantial share of any pay-for-performance benefits that flow from GCF jurisdictions to forest-dependent communities, farmers, smallholders, and Indigenous Peoples. GCF Governors are calling on donor countries, the private sector and civil society to work in partnership with them to help preserve the world’s remaining tropical forests, to enhance livelihoods across their regions, and to develop clear and transparent mechanisms for securing and delivering performance-based benefits to forest-dependent communities, farmers, smallholders, and Indigenous Peoples. According to an analysis by the Earth Innovation Institute, if the GCF states and provinces reduce deforestation by 80% by 2020, this will result in 3.8 billion tons of avoided CO2 emissions on top of the 3 billion tons of emissions already avoided by these jurisdictions.
See the full document in multiple languages in our Resource Library.
