The economic value of forests is equivalent to 24% of global GDP, according to calculations by experts at the World Economic Forum.
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The forest economy is much more than just the timber trade. Nearly one in three people on the planet depends on forest goods and services as a source of income, food, water, and other resources, the WEF writes. At the same time, about 1.6 billion people receive direct economic support from forests, including approximately 60 million indigenous people.
If we consider only the commercial forestry sector — timber, paper, packaging and other products — its contribution amounts to about 3% of global GDP. But if we add water and climate regulation, support for biodiversity, agriculture and other ecosystem services, the economic value of the forest economy turns out to be equivalent to roughly 24% of global GDP, according to WEF analytics.
The authors of the analysis therefore propose treating forests as critical natural infrastructure. Forests regulate the water cycle, support crop yields and biodiversity, provide renewable raw materials, and help economies adapt to climate change. The problem is that the market currently sees almost none of this value. Over the past two decades, the world has lost about 100 million hectares of forest — an area roughly the size of Egypt. At the same time, the annual funding gap for forests could reach $216 billion by 2030, while private capital currently accounts for only about 9% of the required investment, according to UN data cited by the WEF.
Brazil is a country that, through special programs, makes it possible to put a monetary value on such an «invisible» economy. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 71% between 2022 and 2026; in the period from August 2025 to July 2026 alone, the area of destroyed forest dropped to 3,335 sq km – the lowest level since records began in 1988.
We have previously reported that FGV IBRE economist Braulio Borges calculated that lower deforestation rates in 2023–2026 helped avoid approximately 1.5 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. In the baseline scenario, the prevented global economic damage is estimated at around $216 billion, while under the highest estimates of the social cost of carbon, it reaches nearly $2 trillion.
But these hundreds of billions do not end up in the forest owner’s bank account. They are distributed across numerous sectors in the form of reduced climate damage, more sustainable water supply, and better agriculture. Hence the main question of the new forest economy: how to make the market pay for a forest before it becomes more profitable to cut it down.
The Brazilian financial sector is already testing one of the answers. In April 2026, BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group raised $1.24 billion for its Latin American Reforestation Strategy – the world’s largest reforestation fund.
The model combines nature restoration with commercial forestry. The fund expects to cover approximately 660,000 acres, or about 267,000 hectares, of degraded land in Latin America. Roughly half is intended to be conserved and restored as natural forests and other ecosystems, while the second half will be used for sustainably managed commercial forest plantations.
In practice, the project has already achieved a significant scale: in Brazil, nearly 29 million trees have been planted on more than 64,000 acres, over 53,000 acres are under protection, and the restoration of natural vegetation has begun on more than 50,000 acres.
The fund’s economics are built on several revenue streams at once: commercial timber, land value appreciation, and carbon assets. The strategy is expected to generate millions of carbon credits, and agreements for large-scale CO₂ removal volumes have already been signed with leading global corporations.
This is how a new financial model for forests emerges: capital is directed toward degraded lands, part of the territory is returned to nature, part generates income from sustainable forestry, and ecosystem restoration creates additional carbon assets.
This market is of particular interest to the BRICS countries: the world’s largest forest areas are concentrated, among other places, in Russia, Brazil, and China, while Indonesia possesses one of the largest tropical rainforest zones. The question is whether it will be possible to turn water, carbon, biodiversity, and agricultural sustainability into comprehensible financial products.
