Global reforestation and forest restoration efforts are facing a serious setback due to the recent U.S. foreign aid freeze. The sudden halt in funding has left projects around the world scrambling for alternative resources, jeopardizing years of progress.

Without consistent funding, ongoing projects face the threat of scaling back or shutting down entirely, increasing the global risk of biodiversity loss, climate change, deforestation and environmental degradation. This situation also undermines the ambitious goal of restoring 1 billion hectares (2.5 billion acres) of land by 2030, a commitment made by 115 countries, including the U.S. The restoration commitment requires a fourfold increase in funding from governments and the private sector by the end of the decade, according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s latest State of Finance for Nature – Restoration Finance Report.

“The [funding] cuts are problematic on multiple levels,” Heather Huntington, associate professor and executive director of the Penn Development Research Initiative Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, writes in an email. “First, there is the direct project impact; projects are delayed or terminated, so reforestation and restoration are either on hold or (most likely) terminated.”

Huntington has evaluated the impact of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) projects related to land, environment and climate for more than 10 years.

Another major impact is on research and learning, as many USAID employment contracts have been terminated and project evaluations have ceased.

“We are also stopping the evaluations halfway through or even 80% through, and this means that all of the investment in research design, baseline data collection, and analytics to date is lost because we cannot complete these evaluations,” Huntington says. “We’ve lost a lot of knowledge about what works and does not work for restoration.”

Projects and communities feeling the impact

For decades, U.S. foreign aid has played a pivotal role in financing reforestation and forest restoration, particularly in biodiversity hotspots and some of the world’s poorest regions. A portion of USAID’s funding, for example, went toward countries in Africa and Latin America, to support projects ranging from tree planting and sustainable agriculture to biodiversity and wildlife conservation, Huntington says.

She was overseeing four USAID project evaluations before her contracts were terminated. The canceled evaluations and affected projects were at different stages of completion: one (in Ghana) had just begun; two (in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and in Zambia) were slightly past the midpoint, with endline data collection scheduled for next year; and the last one (in Zambia) was in its final stage, with the final analysis and write-up nearly complete when the termination order came through.

“It is just a huge waste,” Huntington says.

According to Mongabay’s research, the funding freeze has affected the operations of many other nature-based projects worldwide, potentially impacting, in the long term, both the environment and the communities that rely on these initiatives for their livelihoods.

The Rainforest Alliance, an international nonprofit organization that supports the development of agroforestry and restoration projects, has been significantly affected.

“The recent funding freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid has sent shockwaves through our critical work,” the organization wrote on LinkedIn. “The impact is enormous: The Rainforest Alliance alone lost $20 million in vital program funding overnight. This reckless move puts lives, livelihoods, and our natural world on the line.”

Five USAID-funded projects led by the Rainforest Alliance, implemented across multiple countries in Latin America and Africa, were affected. One of them, the Resilient Ecosystems and Sustainable Transformation of Rural Economies (RESTORE) project, was being evaluated by Huntington and her team to assess its effectiveness. RESTORE seeks to improve cacao farmers’ livelihoods, expand tree cover and reduce national and corporate greenhouse gas emissions in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

According to the Rainforest Alliance’s report, the RESTORE project, from 2022 to date, has directly benefited 7,785 cacao farmers through training in sustainable and regenerative agriculture practices, facilitated the distribution and planting of nearly 40,000 shade trees, and supported an environmental education program, among other positive impacts across the two countries.

The funding freeze has also significantly impacted the Indonesian NGO Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI) and its affiliate international nonprofit organization, Health in Harmony (HIH). They have relied on funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to support their high-impact program, which provides health care services to communities based in rainforest regions such as Borneo and the Amazon, as an incentive to reduce illegal logging and foster alternative livelihoods and forest restoration.

“HIH and ASRI typically receive approximately $100K annually from USFWS, funding we have relied on for over a decade,” says Nur Febriani, Director of Resource Mobilization at ASRI. “The funding freeze, coupled with ongoing challenges to climate action, poses a significant threat to biodiversity-rich ecosystems, rainforests, and the Indigenous Peoples and local communities who steward these lands. Without continued financial support, there is an increased risk of forest degradation, higher carbon emissions, loss of endangered species, and heightened economic and environmental vulnerabilities for these communities.”

In Zambia, the Luangwa Protecting Nature Improving Lives Project has also been affected. This USAID-funded initiative, implemented by WeForest, an international nonprofit organization, in partnership with the Frankfurt Zoological Society and local communities, aims to scale up beekeeping as a sustainable livelihood approach to buffer the North Luangwa National Park from deforestation threats. The project has already supported 800 smallholder farmers, nearly half of whom are women, installing 4,000 beehives across their properties and providing training, contributing to the conservation and restoration of critical miombo woodland in the Mukungule area, says Dave Bircher, director of growth at WeForest.

However, it now faces an $800,000 funding gap, threatening its ability to scale up and sustain progress.

“Without additional funding, the project cannot reach its full target of 1,500 farmers and 7,500 beehives, limiting both income opportunities for farmers and forest conservation efforts,” Bircher says.

Some project leaders declined to speak to Mongabay due to fear of having funding contracts officially terminated by the U.S. government after the 90-day review period.

Seeking alternative funding to keep projects alive

Despite the challenges, affected organizations are working tirelessly to diversify their funding sources and fill in the gaps left by the U.S. government, including launching online campaigns to request donations and calling on the international community to step up.

“We are actively engaging foundations, corporate partners, and institutional donors to fill the $800,000 funding gap required to meet full project targets,” Bircher says. “In Mukungule, Zambia, 800 farmers have upheld their [commitment to the project], protecting nearly 1,900 hectares [4,695 acres] of forest while adopting sustainable beekeeping.”

The Rainforest Alliance has launched an emergency Resilience Fund to address the sudden loss of funding. “Your donation to the Resilience Fund, no matter the size, will help us keep these crucial programs running,” the organization urged in a public statement. “Frontline farming and forest families are counting on us. Our planet’s most critical landscapes need us to act now.”

ASRI is also battling to ensure the continuity of its projects. “At this time, we have not closed any programs or shifted any community commitments, but are working on alternative fundraising strategies to maintain our commitment to communities,” Nur says. “Though the road ahead is uncertain, we hold onto hope that funding pathways will reopen and that the global commitment to conservation and climate resilience will strengthen.”

For Huntington’s lab, which has had to significantly downsize its staff, “the work will be slower and reliant on university funds,” but the lab will continue working on the research questions that it was originally addressing for USAID, such as the linkages between environmental and human health, the executive director says.

Still, Huntington remains cautiously optimistic about the future.

“The World Bank, European and Asian donors, and various private foundations have invested in and will continue to invest in conservation, climate and the environment,” she says, adding, “I expect resources will be increasingly deployed to fill critical gaps in those sectors.”

Banner image: Women sorting tree seedlings for reforestation in Uganda. Image by Walter Mwesigye/USAID Biodiversity & Forestry via Flickr.

Pause to USAID already having impacts on community conservation in the Amazon