HIFOR – High Integrity Forests – closes the finance gap for high-integrity tropical forests by creating payments for environmental services to reward their stewards and safeguard climate, biodiversity, and livelihoods. WCS’s CAFI-funded prep project maps high-integrity forests across all CAFI countries and pinpoints HIFOR-eligible, priority landscapes—deep-diving in DRC, Republic of Congo, and Gabon. It charts the legal, technical, and financial steps to launch pilots, with robust stakeholder engagement and delivery of geospatial datasets, methods, and feasibility analyses. Aligned with CAFI LoIs, land-use planning, REDD+ contexts, and the Libreville Plan, it lays the groundwork to attract long-term incentives for lasting forest protection.
HIFOR Preparatory Grant
Countries:
Regional
Topics:
Forest sectorPrivate Sector+1
Status:
Funds Transferred
Amount:
$ 467,836
Start Date:
28/03/2025
End Date:
01/08/2026
Implementing Organizations:
WCS
National Partners:
-
Objectives
- Identify and map high-integrity forests and HIFOR-eligible areas across all CAFI partner countries.
- Prioritize pilot landscapes in DRC, Republic of Congo, and Gabon using clear criteria (institutional capacity, security, climate risks, biodiversity and socio-economic benefits) and assess overlaps with HCV/HCS/IFL/KBA and REDD+ areas.
- Define the next steps and feasibility (legal, technical, financial), with structured stakeholder engagement, MOUs, and data-sharing to operationalize HIFOR pilots.
- Ensure alignment and financing logic with CAFI Letters of Intent, national land-use processes, the Libreville Plan, and FCLP Action Area 6-laying the groundwork for environmental service payments that reward forest stewards.
Dollars approved for the project
Dollars transferred to the project
Dollars spent by the project
Documents
| Document Name | Date | Download |
|---|---|---|
 Project document - HIFOR Preparatory Grant - WCS |
10/03/2025 |
Download 
|