The Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF Task Force)’s Theory of Change starts from the premise that the key obstacles facing efforts to protect forests and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at scale are political and legal fragmentation across multiple levels of governance; limited incentives and support for political leaders and civil servants to focus on the climate agenda; and lack of funding and institutional capacity.
The Challenge
In the face of these obstacles, bottom-up approaches to protecting forests, reducing emissions, and enhancing livelihoods continue to offer important complements to more traditional top-down approaches. The Paris agreement recognizes this, and subnational governments are now widely viewed as critical actors in implementing much of the international climate policy agenda. The challenge is to develop institutional frameworks that can motivate, support, connect, and scale these subnational efforts. The GCF Task Force provides one such framework, supporting 54 member states and provinces across 11 countries that together hold more than one-third of the world’s tropical forests.
Given its scale, global reach, and multiple points of connection to other processes, the GCF Task Force offers a unique vehicle for advancing jurisdiction-wide approaches to protecting forests, reducing emissions, and enhancing livelihoods across tropical forest states and provinces.
The GCF Task Force operates at both political and technical levels: it seeks to harness and support the political leadership of committed Governors in the fight against climate change and deforestation, while empowering civil servants and their civil society partners that are so critical in the day-to-day effort to build and maintain successful jurisdictional programs. The GCF Task Force links these efforts with existing and emerging pay-for-performance opportunities; aligns them with national policies and programs; and works with public, private sector and community-level partners, including Indigenous and traditional leaders. By strengthening and enhancing the multiple, overlapping networks of actors involved in building state and provincial programs, the GCF Task Force plays a vital role in the broader international effort to protect forests, reduce emissions, and enhance livelihoods.
How We Work
Our Theory of Change provides a foundation to build a New Forest Economy by accelerating successful jurisdictional programs to protect forests, reduce emissions, and enhance livelihoods across the tropics. As these jurisdictional programs advance and receive support, they provide proof of-concept to other jurisdictions, derisk additional investments, and demonstrate the tangible political benefits of investing in forest protection and climate action—all of which serves to reinforce and strengthen the broader global effort to reduce and reverse the loss of tropical forests, protect biodiversity, alleviate poverty, and promote sustainable development.
Building a New Forest Economy is one of the most important challenges of our time. It is critical for the climate. It is critical for biodiversity. And it is critical for the economic security of billions of people all over the world.
Four Outcomes for Impact
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Outcome 1
Political Engagement & Leadership
First, we facilitate political engagement and leadership by Governors and their high-level staff in national, regional, and international processes. We do this by securing their participation in key meetings and processes and by facilitating their engagement with leaders from other governments, the private sector, civil society, and Indigenous and local communities. In addition, we support the alignment of climate, forest, and sustainable development strategies across our major regions, like the Brazilian Amazon, which promotes cohesion and solidarity across member jurisdictions and allows for better articulation with national processes. This facilitation also includes an emphasis on the importance of gender equity and increasing the number of women representing GCF Task Force jurisdictions at the political level. Doing this as part of a larger global network of like-minded states and provinces reinforces and amplifies this leadership.
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Outcome 2
Implementation Capacity & Civil Servant Leadership
Second, we enable secretaries, key civil servants, and their civil society partners to implement the forest, climate and sustainable development agenda within their governments and beyond by:
• Mapping implementation capacity;
• Identifying and assessing key obstacles to implementation;
• Creating peer-to-peer learning and exchange opportunities across the GCF Task Force network;
• Facilitating technical assistance to solve key implementation challenges; and
• Promoting civil servant commitment to and advocacy for forests and climate.When key civil servants and their civil society partners connect with and learn from each other and their peers within and across states and provinces, they gain knowledge and skills as well as a sense of identity, purpose, and connection that makes them better advocates for forests and climate in government programs and policies at multiple scales. In addition, we support diversifying the selection of GCF Task Force delegates, with an emphasis on the importance of gender equity and increasing the number of women representing the jurisdictions.
Motivated and connected civil servants, together with their civil society partners, provide a strong foundation for successful jurisdictional approaches and ensure continuity across changing administrations, thereby helping to mitigate the risks associated with political turnover.
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Outcome 3
Innovation Funding
Third, we support GCF Task Force states and provinces in their efforts to secure finance and investment to implement jurisdictional programs to build a New Forest Economy, one that protects intact forests, restores degraded lands, and promotes sustainable commodity production and livelihoods. We do this by:
• Identifying budget gaps and bottlenecks;
• Mapping solutions to specific challenges; and
• Providing targeted support to increase financial flows from a variety of sources including public and private funding opportunities, domestic finance reform, investment partnerships with supply chain actors, and jurisdictional REDD+ standards and compliance markets.When new sources of finance flow to GCF Task Force states and provinces, it demonstrates to Governors and their constituents the benefits that come from investing in the forest and climate agenda and makes it possible for civil servants and their partners to implement jurisdictional strategies. When voluntary and compliance markets make REDD+ a part of their program, they provide examples for other markets and further enhance the broader case for REDD+ in national and international processes. When supply chain actors embrace jurisdictional sourcing from high-performing states and provinces, they tackle the leading drivers of deforestation globally and reinforce incentives for jurisdictions to continue investing in sustainable forest and land use. And when domestic budget appropriation processes are reformed, GCF Task Force jurisdictions can channel more funding to the areas of greatest need while removing damaging subsidies for deforestation.
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Outcome 4
Inclusive Forest Governance
We facilitate efforts to incorporate the rights, principles, and interests of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) into jurisdictional policies for sustainable forests and land-use. This includes strengthening collaboration between governments and IPLC leaders, shaping policy and program priorities, and building long-term partnerships with IPLC organizations, tribal governments, and civil society. By fostering meaningful collaboration, we help build trust, mutual respect, and more effective, inclusive governance.