UNHCR has launched the Refugee Environmental Protection (REP) Fund, described as the world’s first major carbon-finance mechanism designed and implemented with refugee communities. The fund will support reforestation, cleaner cooking solutions and green jobs, linking environmental restoration with safer living conditions and improved livelihoods.
“The REP Fund allows us to invest in the environment, create safer conditions and give communities a real stake in protecting the land they depend on,” said Siddhartha Sinha, Head of Innovative Financing at UNHCR. “Refugees often live on the front lines of extreme weather, facing floods, droughts and the loss of vital natural resources.”
The initial projects, beginning in Uganda and Rwanda, form part of a 10-year ambition to restore more than 100,000 hectares of land and extend clean energy access to one million people.
In Uganda, the fund will restore roughly 6,000 hectares of degraded land in the Bidibidi and Kyangwali settlements. The programme includes seedling production, forest management activities, and the introduction of cleaner household energy solutions to reduce dependence on firewood. UNHCR expects the initiatives to cut more than 200,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually, improve food and water systems, and create thousands of green jobs for refugees and host communities.
In Rwanda’s Kigeme refugee camp, located in the Albertine Rift biodiversity hotspot, the programme will rehabilitate an estimated 600–800 hectares of degraded hillsides and buffer zones. Cleaner cooking technologies will be supplied to more than 15,000 people, alongside long-term jobs related to nursery management, soil conservation and household energy services.
Environmental and social outcomes — including emissions reductions, biodiversity recovery, soil and water quality, and livelihood indicators — will be independently monitored and verified. Revenues from carbon credit sales will be reinvested into community-led projects, ensuring both refugees and host communities share in the benefits.
Refugees and local residents will lead implementation, receiving training and employment in areas such as tree planting, nursery operations and clean stove production. UNHCR notes these efforts will reduce exposure to smoke, strengthen degraded ecosystems and lower protection risks linked to firewood collection.
The fund is also assessing future expansion in Brazil and Bangladesh. In Brazil’s Roraima state, a project is being developed in the 650,000-hectare São Marcos Indigenous Land, home to Indigenous Brazilians and Venezuelan Indigenous refugees. The area has experienced rapid deforestation and soil loss, threatening both ecosystems and livelihoods. The planned project aims to restore land and protect communities in this Amazon region.
“By integrating forcibly displaced communities into verified financing markets, the REP Fund demonstrates that humanitarian settings are not just beneficiaries of financing but active participants in global solutions,” said Pilar Pedrinelli, REP Fund Lead at UNHCR.
Each year, nearly 25 million trees are cut down for cooking fuel across refugee-hosting regions, contributing to soil erosion, weaker food systems and heightened safety risks. The REP Fund aims to counter this trend by restoring forests, expanding access to cleaner energy and using carbon finance to support families working to rehabilitate damaged landscapes.
