Brazil’s Cerrado, one of the world’s most biodiverse savanna ecosystems and a critical carbon sink, is facing increasing pressure from agricultural expansion, particularly soy production. Soy farmland expanded from 13 million hectares in 2000 to 44 million hectares in 2023, making it a major driver of deforestation and land conversion in the region. Agriculture and land-use change together account for more than 60 per cent of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, more than half of the Cerrado’s native vegetation has already been cleared, leading to loss of biodiversity, degraded water systems, and greater vulnerability of farming communities to climate risks such as droughts, heatwaves, and changing rainfall patterns. While national regulations such as the Forest Code exist, enforcement remains limited, and farmers often lack financial incentives to conserve native vegetation, particularly as around 70 per cent of the remaining natural habitat lies on privately owned land.

The RCF-DCF Programme seeks to address these challenges by aligning financial incentives with landscape protection in the soy sector. The initiative supports deforestation- and conversion-free crop financing for soy producers in the Cerrado through a dedicated climate-focused investment structure. It includes a USD 85 million impact fund alongside additional co-investment vehicles designed to mobilise larger pools of capital.

Through customised credit lines, farmers will be enabled to forgo converting native vegetation and to support a shift in soy production business models towards landscape protection. By linking agricultural finance to conservation outcomes, the programme aims to protect native vegetation, reduce emissions from land-use change, and support more sustainable soy production systems across the Cerrado landscape.

The programme represents a first-of-its-kind attempt to use a scalable payment-for-ecosystem-services model for farmers in a region facing acute deforestation pressures. It was developed under GCF’s Project-specific Assessment Approach (PSAA).

Responsible Commodities Facility - Deforestation and Conversion Free: Finance for soy production in the Cerrado, Brazil (RCF-DCF Project)

<p>Project information is sourced from Green Climate Fund. Please check terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Gender assessment for FP301: Responsible Commodities Facility - Deforestation and Conversion Free: Finance for soy production in the Cerrado, Brazil (RCF-DCF Project)

Project

Brazil

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

A loan is a policy instrument where funds are provided to a borrower with the expectation of repaying the principal plus interest.

Financial actors and resources that are primarily directed towards climate change mitigation, adaptation and compensation.

Dedicated pool of financial resources for climate-related projects.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions or measures to adapt terrestrial systems to climate change.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

Actions to adapt human health, healthcare systems and well-being to climate change.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

A drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather marked by a significant and sustained lack of precipitation, falling below a specific threshold over a large area for more than a month

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Social protection systems consist of policies that help people manage social risks in order to prevent poverty and maintain decent incomes and living standards

Social inclusion is the process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society—improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

People who have left their homes, whether through force, voluntarily, or a mixture of both

woman and genders outside of the gender binary

Households employing domestic workers, for activities like cooking, cleaning and subsistence farming, for their own use.

This sector involves managing waste treatment, sanitation, pollution control and environmental cleanup.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

This sector involves activities that impart knowledge and skills to individuals, including formal schooling, vocational training and educational support.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

Activities of businesses and institutions that provide financial services and products to individuals and organisations.

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

the fair distribution of risks and opportunities of climate change and the transition to a regenerative economy, cognisant in particular of disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities and the working class

Procedural justice means ensuring that decision making is safe, transparent and inclusive, emphasizing the agency and influence of vulnerable groups and those most impacted.

Gender assessment for FP301: Responsible Commodities Facility - Deforestation and Conversion Free: Finance for soy production in the Cerrado, Brazil (RCF-DCF Project)

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Climate justice

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance