We know nature’s ability to mitigate climate change and conserve biodiversity are intertwined. HIFOR is an innovative, scalable financial mechanism rooted in the underlying value of nature.
Investing in them mitigates climate change, prevents biodiversity loss, and delivers socioeconomic benefits.
The HIFOR unit represents one hectare of healthy, high integrity tropical forest that is being actively conserved within a large landscape for decades. These units deliver far-reaching benefits, including the ongoing removal of CO2, regulation of regional rainfall, local and regional cooling, and protection of high levels of biodiversity.
High integrity tropical forests are some of the highest biodiversity ecosystems on earth.
Absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, supply rain downwind, and keep local and regional areas substantially cooler than they would be without them.
We identify the tropical forests with the highest integrity and consult with local stakeholders to determine if HIFOR is a good fit for them
In Republic of Congo, we are exploring a potential pilot in the Lac Tele Community Reserve which has a community of roughly 20,000 people, along with the highest known densities of lowland gorillas globally. Much of the reserve is peatland and is co-managed by the government and WCS.
In the Amazon Basin, in addition to the Mamirauá and Amanã pilot, we are also actively exploring options for HIFOR pilots in Jaú National Park and Indigenous territories in Amazonas. We’re also evaluating the potential for Indigenous territory HIFOR pilots in the Colombian Amazon, including Território da Yaguares.
The HIFOR Congo Project is in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, which covers 408,000 hectares of predominantly high integrity tropical forest in northern Republic of Congo.
The HIFOR Amazonas Project is across two Sustainable Development Reserves in the Central Amazonas Conservation Complex of Brazil, covering 3,623,406 hectares of high integrity tropical forest.