Results

GCF has enabled CI field programs and more than 40 partners to ensure protection for more than 79.8 million hectares (197 million acres) of the most threatened and biologically important land and seascapes.

This includes the creation of 63 new protected areas and expansion of six existing protected areas in 25 countries – an amount projected to nearly double in the future through dozens of initiatives currently receiving GCF support.

View the complete list of protected areas created or expanded with GCF support.

GCF investments also have helped make possible a number of ground-breaking agreements and financial mechanisms to support protected areas in the long term.

Highlights include:

• 402,000 hectares protected in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, bringing the land under protection in the area to 987,000 hectares and forming the largest, most pristine wilderness in mainland Southeast Asia. A special fund is now in development to support this critical area in the long term.

• An agreement between CI, The Nature Conservancy and the governments of the United States and Guatemala that will provide more than $24 million to help protect critically threatened tropical forests in the Central American country over 15 years. 

The protected areas supported by GCF provide vital habitat for more than 700 globally threatened species. Benefits also extend beyond the immediate impact on the area’s biodiversity as human health is strongly linked to the health of ecosystems.

The healthy natural ecosystems being made possible with GCF support also play an important role in mitigating and adapting to global climate change. Many GCF projects focus on forest areas as a critical part of the solution to combating global climate change.5