The Premise

When communities thrive, forests thrive.

Across the world’s tropical forests, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and Local Communities are already stewarding ecosystems critical to climate stability, biodiversity, and human well-being. Yet the economic systems surrounding them systematically undervalue their role, limit their agency, and extract value from their territories.

Community-Led Forest Economies (CLFE) is a global movement and partnership working to shift this dynamic. To enable economies that are rooted in territories, led by communities, and aligned with ecological integrity.

What is CLFE?

• A movement advancing a new paradigm for forest economies

• A partnership platform aligning actors across regions, sectors, and systems

• An enabling layer that supports, not replaces, community-led efforts

CLFE operates with a clear ethos:

• Not to replace, but align and complement

• Not to represent, but amplify and facilitate

• Not to take over, but support and strengthen

• Not to drive, but advance together with and for others

Vision

A world where the well-being of communities and their central agency in shaping the economic, political, and social dimensions of their livelihoods is secured and thriving within and alongside the ecosystems they live in and protect.

What CLFE Does

CLFE focuses on transforming the systems that shape forest economies: policy, finance, markets, and narratives. It does so through three core pillars:

1. Catalyze a Powershift

Align, support, and amplify IP, AD, and LC-led efforts

• Strengthen community governance and institutional capacity

• Advance direct access to finance

• Support territorial strategies across the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia

• Enable inter-regional learning and collaboration

Goal: Shift decision-making power, resources, and agency toward communities.

2. Strengthen Sector Development

Build viable, community-led forest economies

• Support the development of the sociobioeconomy

• Strengthen value chains, aggregation, and local processing

• Advance enabling infrastructure (energy, connectivity, logistics)

• Mobilize fit-for-purpose finance and market access

Goal: Establish CLFEs as a recognized and investable economic sector.

3. Advance Global Engagement

Shape narratives, coalitions, and global agendas

• Position CLFE in global processes (climate, biodiversity, development)

• Build South–South collaboration and exchange

• Engage partners across finance, policy, and civil society

• Expand the CLFE movement and coalition

Goal: Shift how forest economies are understood, valued, and supported globally.

Why This Matters

• Community-managed forests consistently outperform others in protecting ecosystems

• Yet less than 2% of climate finance reaches IP, AD, and LCs directly

• Existing economic systems often make communities price-takers rather than market actors

CLFE addresses this gap by aligning economic development with ecological stewardship and community agency. Within the context of disappearing ODA and philanthropic funding, CLFE seeks to change systems such that local livelihoods and territories are appropriately values and protected.

Focus Areas for 2026

CLFE is prioritizing a set of catalytic initiatives across the three pillars. While these initiatives are still being refined by the core parters, we are discussing:

• Direct finance to communities, including mapping and bolstering existing financial mechanisms (PES, carbon markets, TFFF, emerging nature finance systems)

• Public procurement and market development for community enterprises

• Regional powershift strategies across the three tropical forest basins

• South-South learning and movement building

How CLFE Engages

CLFE works through partnership and alignment with a wide range of actors, including:

• IP, AD, and LC organizations and networks

• National and subnational governments

• Financial institutions and philanthropic partners

• NGOs, research institutions, and global initiatives

Rather than creating parallel structures, CLFE seeks to connect, strengthen, and scale what already exists. The CLFE movement was founded in 2025 by six core partners: GATC, Alliance Bioversity CIAT, SDSN, WRI, REFACOF, and Tropenbos. It was launched publicly at COP30 in Belem and the monthly partnership meetings have diverse representation from relevant stakeholders including UNDP, Tenure Facility, RRI, EDF, and more.

In Short

CLFE is working to move from:

• Extractive → regenerative economies

• Marginalized communities → central economic actors

• Fragmented efforts → aligned, system-level transformation

The opportunity is not just to protect forests, but to build the governance and economic systems that make them thrive.