Global Environment Fund (GEF) has raised $160 million into its Africa Sustainable Forestry Fund, exceeding its target of $150 million.

Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild (CBR) is hoping to raise €100 million ($130 million) into a fund to invest in sustainable agroforestry projects in Africa and Latin America.

A fund that intends to earn credits from reducing deforestation has snagged $40 million from a US development finance institution.

A surge in activity around projects that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) has helped boost the value of the forest carbon markets – despite lingering uncertainty about their future, according to a survey.

A market in ‘forest bonds’ could offer a vital means of raising the finance necessary to protect the world’s tropical forests, WWF says in a report published today.

A hybrid mechanism, in which tradable credits can be issued directly to forest carbon projects, as well as to national governments, is the clear preference of the private finance sector for rewarding projects that reduce deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), according to a report from the UNEP Finance Initiative.

A rainforest rehabilitation project in Borneo was registered under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) on Friday, with around 500,000 carbon credits due to be issued this week, representing three years of emission reductions.

A former prime minister of Sweden has helped launch a global initiative to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020.

KGAL is hoping to raise €250 million ($360 million) into its second sustainable forestry fund, and its first aimed at institutional investors.

A Brazilian firm is launching a fund that aims to help meet the booming demand for timber while delivering high returns for institutional investors.

The UK’s guidelines for counting the carbon saved in afforestation projects blurs the line over creating carbon offsets, according to developers and retailers of carbon offsets.

Standards set by WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN) are too lax and the programme lacks transparency, claims a searing report by the NGO Global Witness.

A controversial motion recognising the environmental value of forests for storing carbon has been passed by the general assembly of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is likely to become a cornerstone investor in a forest carbon fund under development by BNP Paribas.

A multilateral financial institution is understood to be poised to issue a first-of-its-kind ‘rainforest bond’ which would repay investors based on returns from the ecosystem services provided by the area of rainforest.

A Greenpeace report which slams consultancy firm McKinsey & Company for its work advising rainforest countries such as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Congo and Guyana, has prompted renewed scrutiny of a key methodology used to assess carbon abatement.

Norway is to immediately transfer $40 million to Guyana in the first payment under a novel deal to protect the South American country’s forests.

A landmark deal in which Norway pays Guyana to protect its forests has come under scrutiny, after it emerged that in the first year of the agreement deforestation has risen 300%.

Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) has reached an agreement with an environmental group to conserve carbon-rich forests in Indonesia – including setting a provisional ‘carbon threshold’ which would see it protect high-carbon forests.

A pioneering project to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in Indonesia has raised $2 million in a second funding round.