Forests & Land Use

Forests and sustainable land use are essential climate solutions.

They can mitigate climate change, benefit people, and protect the environment. But today, land use—from deforestation, land degradation, and the draining and burning of tropical peatlands, to fertilizer application and rice and cattle production—is responsible for about 25 percent of human-related greenhouse gas emissions. More effective land use can protect the climate by reducing carbon emissions and preserving natural carbon sinks.

The Climate and Land Use Alliance

The ClimateWorks Forests and Land Use program is led by the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), which believes an equitable, climate-safe world can only be achieved through locally-led solutions complemented by critical shifts in global systems and power structures. From grassroots to global, CLUA supports these cross-cutting priorities:

Secure Forest Communities’ Rights & Livelihoods

Supporting Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ efforts to secure and exercise their land rights and tenure, manage their forests, and support their livelihoods.

Advance Governance, Policy, & Accountability

Supporting effective environmental and social governance and policies while strengthening accountability to ensure equitable and sustainable management of forest resources and a just energy transition.

Strengthen Movements, Narratives, & Collective Action

Supporting resilient, inclusive movements, narratives, and collective action on justice and rights, forest protection and regeneration, and climate resilience. Learn more

Shift Financial Systems

Supporting just economic transitions that strengthen equity and transparency, revitalize forest economies, and reverse forest loss, while mobilizing more accessible and effective finance for forests and communities.

Improve Production, Consumption, & Trade

Supporting shifts in agricultural production, consumption, and trade toward lower-emissions, climate-resilient alternatives that benefit people and the environment, and increasing the sustainability of infrastructure and extractive industries in ways that protect communities and nature.