$1 million for climate-focused forestry

By Monica Allaby, Posted on February 28, 2023

Community Forests International is pleased to announce that it has received a $1 million grant from TD Bank Group as part of the 2022 TD Ready Challenge, a North American-wide initiative that provides funding to the top 10 organizations developing innovative and impactful responses to climate change.

“One-third of the greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed to limit global warming can come from protecting and restoring natural areas like forests, and we can support rural people and forestry workers to lead in that work,” says Daimen Hardie, Executive Director at Community Forests International. “We’re enabling forestry workers and families to maintain a good living while also shifting to a low-carbon economy—or in this case, a forest economy that actually stores more carbon than it emits.”

The grant will allow Community Forests International to equip people with new knowledge and tools to keep their forests healthy in a changing climate, creating greater environmental and economic security in forest-dependent communities. In the next 3 years, Community Forests International aims to reach over 14,000 family forest owners and workers across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to help improve the health and carbon storage of forests through their livelihoods.

Until recently, forest carbon revenues and other emerging conservation finance opportunities have been inaccessible to small family forest owners because they cannot achieve the scale that larger organizations are able to, nor navigate the complex and costly verification standards. The grant will help unlock greater investments in forest carbon storage, allowing Community Forests International to make climate- focused forest opportunities accessible for individual citizens by pooling them together into aggregated projects with shared costs and certifications.

“Promoting a more inclusive and sustainable future is core to our purpose as an organization and we are focused on helping our customers, colleagues and communities thrive in a rapidly changing world, ” said Janice Farrell Jones, Senior Vice President, Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship, TD Bank Group. “Through this year’s TD Ready Challenge, we are helping to enable organizations with promising new ideas to address the transition to a low-carbon economy and support those communities that are most affected.”

Fast Facts

• In 2020, 14,595 people in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were directly employed in forestry, and thousands of rural citizens rely on family forests for supplemental income and rainy-day savings.
• The overall project targets are to reach over 14,000 people, protect more than 550,000 acres of forest, and drive more than $7,000,000 towards rural households over the next three years.
• There are 80,000 family forest owners across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island who care for 40% of the region’s forestland.

About Community Forests International

Community Forests International is a charitable organization that’s working to protect and restore the climate by enabling communities to thrive with forests. Our vision is that the Wabanaki forest—the endangered forest type found in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia—will be protected and restored as one of Canada’s most vibrant and diverse carbon storehouses and to do it in a way that shares the upside with people who depend on it and communities located within it.

About The TD Ready Commitment

TD has a long-standing commitment to enriching the lives of its customers, colleagues and communities. As part of its corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment, TD is targeting CDN $1 billion (U.S. $775 million) in total by 2030 towards community giving in four areas critical to help open doors for a more inclusive and sustainable tomorrow – Financial Security, Vibrant Planet, Connected Communities and Better Health. Through the TD Ready Commitment, TD aspires to link its business, philanthropy and human capital to help people feel more confident – not just about their finances, but also in their ability to achieve their personal goals in a changing world. For further information, visit td.com/tdreadycommitment.

For more information:

Elizabeth Glassen | BlueSky Communications
eglassen@blueskycommunications.com