Refugee Environmental Protection Fund

UNHCR is launching the Refugee Environmental Protection (REP) Fund to invest in impactful reforestation and clean cooking programs in climate-vulnerable refugee situations around the world.

The Fund would aim to plant tens of millions more trees and enable hundreds of thousands of refugees and their hosts to access clean cooking solutions over the next decade. In doing so it will link refugees and host communities to the global carbon markets, empowering them to become part of the global movement to combat climate change.

The Challenge

Climate change and environmental crises such as deforestation are critical problems in refugee situations. UNHCR estimates that 20-25 million trees are cut down in and around refugee settlements each year. 90% of this deforestation is driven by the urgent need for cooking fuel.

This results in large-scale environmental and social degradation. The resulting environmental problems include soil erosion, landslides, and desertification, which threaten safe living conditions and livelihoods for refugees. As the wood collection perimeter widens with deforestation, women and children must travel further to collect wood, putting them at increased risk of sexual- and gender-based violence. Environmental degradation also heightens the risk of conflict between refugees and hosts.

The Solution

The REP Fund would help address these complex issues by creating an innovative and sustainable financing mechanism to invest in strengthening and scaling up reforestation and clean-cooking programs in climate-vulnerable refugee-hosting communities worldwide.

The carbon impact of these programs would be registered and verified to generate the first-ever large-scale refugee-generated carbon credits. The sale of these credits would help replenish the Fund, allowing it to re-invest in new reforestation and clean cooking programs, making the Fund more financially and operationally sustainable over time. The Fund’s environmental programs would in addition generate green jobs for refugees and host communities.

Main Areas of Impact

Environmental

Restoration of green cover, CO2 sequestration, and lowered risk of landslides and other local environmental risks from deforestation.

Protection

Health improvements from reduced cooking smoke inhalation, primarily by women and girls, and reduced risk of gender-based violence when collecting firewood.

Social

Clean cooking solutions for refugee and host community families, leading to greater peace and security.

Economic

'Green jobs' created in reforestation and clean cooking supply chains in under-developed areas in developing countries.

The Refugee Environmental Protection Fund is a flagship initiative under UNHCR’s Strategic Framework for Climate Action, which directs UNHCR’s response to the growing, global climate emergency.