Better Growth with Forests: Partnerships for Sustainable Rural Development at the Forest Frontier

The World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Forests proposes a model of 'protection-production partnerships' to address the conflict between rising global demand for commodities and tropical deforestation. The paper identifies eight key challenges to this transformation, including land tenure, governance, and finance. It suggests three mechanisms to scale these partnerships: a challenge fund for pioneering jurisdictions, land-use innovation incubators for co-creating sustainable intensification models, and a sustainable land-development corporation to manage risk and scale high-impact partnerships.

• Rising global demand for food and wood products is a primary driver of tropical deforestation, with the global population predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050 and requiring 70% more food calories.
• It is possible to achieve economic growth and rural development while protecting forests, as evidenced by the legal Amazon in Brazil, where agricultural output increased while deforestation rates fell significantly.
• The document identifies eight critical challenges for transforming forest frontier development: development models, governance and rule of law, scaling market signals, land tenure and rights, data and transparency, long-term finance, national circumstances, and managing complexity.
• To accelerate the creation of 'pledge-ready' partnerships, the paper proposes three models: a 'Protection-production challenge fund' for pilot initiatives, a 'Land-use innovation incubator' for rapid prototyping of sustainable intensification, and a 'Sustainable land-development corporation' to take initial risks and scale partnerships through a VC-type funding model.

APA

World Economic Forum (2015). Better Growth with Forests: Partnerships for Sustainable Rural Development at the Forest Frontier. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC15_Better_Growth_with_Forests.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Better Growth with Forests: Partnerships for Sustainable Rural Development at the Forest Frontier. 2015. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC15_Better_Growth_with_Forests.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Better Growth with Forests: Partnerships for Sustainable Rural Development at the Forest Frontier |date=December 2015 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC15_Better_Growth_with_Forests.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2015better, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Better Growth with Forests: Partnerships for Sustainable Rural Development at the Forest Frontier}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2015}, month = dec, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC15_Better_Growth_with_Forests.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }