Enhancing Financial Mechanisms for Primary Forest Conservation

Primary Forests as Globally Important Ecosystems

Primary forests are complex ecosystems that host a vast amount of the world's terrestrial biodiversity, act as significant carbon sinks, and provide innumerable ecosystem services essential for human wellbeing and survival. Their conservation is fundamental for achieving multiple global goals, including the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), as well as several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, these critically important ecosystems are under threat, with the tropics losing 83 million hectares of primary forest from 1990 to 2020, and boreal regions 50 million hectares of intact forests between 2001 and 2024.

Primary forests, including intact forest landscapes, encompass various forest types and are spread across the globe. However, the largest expanses are concentrated in the Amazon, the boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, the Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia, with smaller remnants scattered within wider landscapes around the world. These unique ecosystems comprise roughly one-third of the planet’s remaining forest cover and are irreplaceable treasures. While efforts to promote sustainable forest management and restore degraded areas are both commendable and necessary, overlooking the protection and prioritisation of primary forests within these regions risks permanently diminishing the overall value and capacity of the world’s forests.

Despite international attention to deforestation, primary forests do not receive the prioritisation they deserve in global policy agendas. The lack of understanding of the values and benefits of primary forests in global policy agendas and forest financing strategies has led to their inadequate prioritisation, contributing to ongoing deforestation and loss of these vital ecosystems. Thus, there is a need to increase policy coherence and financial mechanisms that can enhance conservation of globally important primary forest ecosystems.

Spotlighting Primary Forests at the IUCN World Conservation Congress

The session was moderated by Chetan Kumar, Global Head of the IUCN Forest and Grasslands Team. The session included high-level remarks from H.E. Hambardzum Matevosyan, Minister of Environment of Armenia. In his address, he outlined Armenia’s role in hosting the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), set to take place in 2026. Recognising the unique value of primary forests, especially as habitat for endemic and threatened biodiversity, the Minister highlighted Armenia’s commitment to strengthening biodiversity conservation and financing, both within Armenia and beyond.

In his keynote address, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), echoed the importance of enhancing financial mechanisms and strengthening the ability of governments to deliver on primary forest conservation, especially through increased coordination and capacity. He stressed the importance of holistic global cooperation and support in conserving primary forest ecosystems. “The challenge to meet several 2030 targets related to sustainable development, nature, climate, and land requires an alignment between global ambition and national implementation,” he said. “More support is needed for countries to embrace a path for policy coherence—where sectoral ministries, finance, and leadership work together to deliver lasting results for people and nature.”

National and International Efforts to Conserve Primary Forests

In his keynote address, Prof. Dr. Satyawan Pudyatmoko, Director General of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation at Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry, highlighted Indonesia’s commitment to conserve primary and intact forests, building upon the idea of cooperation as a tool in conservation. "I would like to reaffirm Indonesia’s commitment to conserving primary and intact forests within the framework of global policy initiatives. In this context, strengthening resource mobilization mechanisms is crucial,” he said. “We recently launched the Indonesia Biodiversity Fund (IBioFund), a blended finance platform to mobilise public, private, and international resources to support long-term biodiversity conservation and restoration efforts, including in primary forests."

Luis Hilton Guardado, Deputy Director of Instituto Nacional de Bosques (INAB) of Guatemala, further stressed the importance of national efforts to conserve primary forests, presenting a major success story on the power of financial incentives for forests in Guatemala. “For 28 years, the PINFOR, PINPEP, and PROBOSQUE forestry incentive programs, administered by the National Forest Institute (INAB), have promoted sustainable forest management in Guatemala,” he said. “Created through robust legislation passed by the Congress of the Republic, these programs provide economic benefits to those who protect, produce, reforest, and restore forests. With continuous state support, they have benefited more than 260,000 families, covering 760,000 hectares, and representing an investment of approximately US$900 million.”

Juliette Biao, Director of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) Secretariat, expanded upon the idea that nations need to take action in primary forest conservation. “Protection and conservation of primary forests need a more political leadership at the Heads of states level,” she said. “The shift from a political will to a political rigor should happen now.” 

The Future of Primary Forest Conservation: Leveraging Diverse Tools and Local Communities

Axel Beneman, Deputy Head of Division for International Environment Finance, Federal Ministry for the Environment Climate Action, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN), Germany, also stressed the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to conservation, urging the conservation community to pull upon diverse perspectives and resources in developing effective conservation programmes. “Primary forest protection requires a holistic approach, from national policies and planning to the direct and equitable involvement of Indigenous Peoples and local communities that live in the forest, the abolition of perverse incentives, and the promotion of positive ones, holistic land use management, effective protected areas, the involvement of the private sector and the transparent disclosure of its impacts, and monitoring, to name but a few,” he said. “We must use the entire toolbox of instruments at our disposal.”

To that effect, Brendan Mackey, Director of the Griffith Climate Action Beacon at Griffith University, shared how new possibilities are being created within the conservation sector as a result of new tools and developments. In particular, improved monitoring and mapping are not only shedding light on primary forest cover trends but providing insight which can be utilised by decisionmakers across scales to improve outcomes for ecosystems and communities.  “High quality spatial data are now available for mapping and monitoring primary forests and identifying in a timely manner where forest degradation is occurring," he said.

Cyril Kormos, Founder and Executive Director of Wild Heritage, reiterated that effective primary forest conservation strategies must employ data, tools, the power of policy, and stakeholder knowledge, but they must also recognize the urgency of the need to protect these ecosystems. From climate to biodiversity, and human health to socioeconomic value, primary forests offer benefits unlike any other forest type, but they remain largely undervalued on the global stage.  “Protecting primary forests is an urgent priority: they maximize ecosystem services, including biodiversity and climate mitigation, and they are irrecoverable by 2030, 2050 or even 2100,” he said.

Houria Djoudi, Dryland Forestry Officer and COFO Dryland Working Group Secretary, Forestry Division, FAO, and Joseph Itongwa, Regional Coordinator for Central Africa, ICCA Consortium, both drew attention to an aspect of primary forest conservation that is essential to any conservation strategy’s success: the importance of recognising and empowering Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), who are the rights-holders and traditional stewards of these ecosystems. They have invaluable knowledge about these ecosystems and today remain stewards committed to the long-term preservation and sustainable management of primary forests. Therefore, when discussing financial mechanisms and policy coherence, emphasised Djoudi and Itongwa, IPLSs must have a seat at the table and the resources needed to conserve the forests they rely on and protect.

IUCN Member Commitments to Preserving Primary Forests

The event concluded with remarks from Stewart Maginnis, IUCN Deputy Director General, where he underscored IUCN’s continued commitment conserving primary forests and intact forest landscapes for the sake of both people and nature. Highlighting examples of IUCN and partner efforts, from the Critical Forest Biomes Integrated Program and regional coordination efforts in the Amazon, Congo, Indo-Malaya, and Mesoamerica, to the GEF-funded project “Strengthening Conservation of Primary Forests through Partnership Enhancement and Coordination of Support,” he reinforced the power of the Union to do justice towards these ecosystems.

IUCN’s commitment to primary forests is further reinforced by existing Resolutions and Recommendations, including Resolution 45 Protection of primary forests, including intact forest landscapes, Resolution 127 Strengthening the protection of primary and old-growth forests in Europe and facilitating their restoration where possible, and Motion 015 Primary and old-growth forests at the next World Conservation Congress, newly adopted as of the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025.