Enabling Forest Investment Development Facility (ForInvest)

The Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) at the Department of State announces a Notice of Funding Opportunity (“NOFO”) for an award entitled, “Enabling Forest Investment Development Facility (ForInvest).”  The award will use U.S. Fiscal Year 2021 Economic Support Funds, subject to Congressional approval and the continuing availability of funds.  The Biden Administration has identified conserving, restoring, and improving management of forests and landscapes as a key element of an overall strategy to address the climate crisis.  The Plan to Conserve Global Forests: Critical Carbon Sinks, the U.S. government-wide plan to address global deforestation launched at COP26, recognizes the important role that private investment plays in the effective conservation, restoration, and improved management of forests.  The Plan identifies the vital role of catalyzing private sector investment, finance, and action to conserve critical carbon sinks to halting and reversing forest loss as a core objective.

The ForInvest project will work in developing countries in the three key geographies identified in the Plan to Conserve Global Forests: Critical Carbon Sinks: the Amazon basin, Congo basin, and South East Asia.  The project will support the Plan’s objective by facilitating and enabling investment, particularly from private sector financial institutions, in natural climate solutions and other land use activities that increase carbon storage or prevent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from landscapes.  Specifically, the project will unlock investments by developing natural climate solutions-focused investment pipelines and linking investors to those pipelines.

Primary organizations can submit one application in response to this NOFO.  Interested applicants from within Duke should contact dukeiln@duke.edu as early as possible.

Deadline: May 30, 2022