Britain and the United States have joined Norway and Germany in supporting efforts by the Peruvian government to reduce deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon.

According to a join declaration issued today, the U.S. and U.K. have signed on to the existing reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) program established in 2014 by Norway and Germany with the government of Peru. Norway and Germany have agreed to extend their participation in the program through 2025, pledging 1.8 billion Norwegian Krone ($215 million) and 210 million euros ($255 million), respectively, based on Peru’s progress in curbing deforestation. The U.S. announced $47.5 million in funding.

The money is going toward a range of initiatives, including combating illegal deforestation and strengthening governance, fostering more “sustainable use” of forest resources, and supporting community-level projects like Indigenous agroforestry.

The announcement comes several weeks after Norway, Britain, and the U.S. rolled out the LEAF Coalition, a public-private alliance that established a $10 per ton price for rainforest carbon credits as a mechanism to scale up finance for tropical forest conservation efforts. The LEAF Coalition has pledged to mobilize at least $1 billion in results-based funding for forests.

Deforestation in Peru has been trending upward since the mid-2010s, according to data from the World Resource Institute’s Global Forest Watch. Primary forest loss reached 190,000 hectares in 2020, the highest level since at least 2002.

Peru has the fourth highest extent of tropical forest in the world, following Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia. It accounts for one-eighth of the tree cover in the Amazon rainforest.

Header image: A river in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

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