Refugee Environmental Protection Fund

The Refugee Environmental Protection (REP) Fund is an innovative financing mechanism developed by UNHCR to deliver large-scale environmental solutions in displacement settings. Many of these settings are protracted, with refugees remaining in exile for five years or more – placing sustained pressure on local ecosystems and energy systems over time. The REP Fund was created in response to the intersecting challenges of deforestation, energy access, and protection risks - such as exposure to gender-based violence, exploitation, or negative coping mechanisms linked to firewood collection and energy scarcity. It also addresses growing vulnerability to climate-related hazards like floods, drought, and extreme heat, which are intensified by environmental degradation. Traditional humanitarian funding structures are not always designed for long-term solutions. The REP Fund aims to fill that gap by using carbon finance to generate sustainable revenue that supports reforestation and clean energy access, while reducing these risks and strengthening resilience for both refugees and host communities.

Unlike most humanitarian programmes that rely on short-term grants, the REP Fund is designed as a long-term, market-linked financing platform. It operates by generating high-integrity carbon credits that are certified, sold, and reinvested into environmental restoration and protection activities in displacement settings. The Fund bridges immediate humanitarian needs and longer-term development outcomes by embedding sustainability, financial autonomy, and systems thinking into its model. Refugees and host communities are not passive recipients – they are co-owners of the projects and actively engaged as workers, stewards, and decision-makers. By jointly participating in the design and implementation of interventions, the REP Fund promotes social cohesion, local ownership, and peaceful co-existence in fragile contexts.

The REP Fund supports implementation of UNHCR’s Strategic Framework and Focus Area Strategic Plan for Climate Action (2024-2030). It reflects the growing importance of innovative financing mechanisms to address complex, long-term challenges in displacement settings through sustainable, climate-responsive approaches. The Fund contributes directly to UNHCR’s protection and solutions mandate by tackling environmental degradation, energy poverty, and associated protection risks. It also aligns with UNHCR’s commitment under the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) to support host countries and mobilize additional resources through strategic partnerships. The REP Fund forms part of UNHCR’s multi-stakeholder climate pledge submitted at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum, reinforcing its role as a flagship initiative at the intersection of displacement, climate action, and inclusive financing.

The REP Fund focuses on two primary intervention areas:

• Reforestation and ecosystem restoration, including agroforestry, assisted natural regeneration, and community-managed woodlots in refugee hosting areas. These projects focus on native species, biodiversity enhancement, and long-term carbon sequestration.
• Clean cooking and energy access, such as improved cookstoves (Tier 3 above). These reduce reliance on firewood, lower indoor air pollution, and improve safety and health, particularly for refugee women and girls.

The first pilot projects will be implemented in Uganda and Rwanda, following detailed feasibility assessments covering environmental, legal, and financial viability. Specifically, pilots are being launched in Bidibidi and Kyangwali settlements in Uganda, and Kigeme camp in Rwanda. These sites were selected based on the scale of displacement, land availability, community needs, and strong government engagement. The Fund and its activities are designed to be scalable and replicable – with context-specific adaptations – across a wide range of displacement-affected geographies. Insights from these initial pilots will inform future rollouts in eastern Africa and other region.

Feasibility studies are conducted using a multi-criteria framework that emphasizes country ownership and alignment with national priorities, including Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and carbon market frameworks. Each assessment involves on-site consultations and early engagement with government counterparts and local stakeholders to ensure inclusive implementation. Key criteria include:

• Technical viability (e.g. land availability, carbon sequestration potential)
• Legal and regulatory clarity (e.g. carbon rights, land tenure, Non-Objection Letters (NOLs)
• Commercial viability (e.g. cost-per-ton, distribution models)
• Community readiness and acceptance.

Yes, wherever feasible, REP Fund projects are designed as integrated interventions. Clean cooking and reforestation address the same drivers of protection risks and deforestation and together maximize impact, co-benefits, and carbon revenue. However, project design is context-specific: in some sites, one activity may be prioritized over the other based on feasibility and local needs.

All REP Fund projects are designed to meet the most credible and widely recognized voluntary carbon market standards.

For clean cooking and other household energy interventions, the methodology of reference is TPDDTEC, which is widely accepted for its rigorous social impact tracking and alignment with humanitarian outcomes.

For reforestation and ecosystem restoration, projects may use Gold Standard A/R methodologies or Verra’s VCS VM0047, depending on site-specific needs.

All projects must also align with the ICVCM Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) to ensure integrity across environmental, social, and procedural dimensions. UNHCR intentionally avoids “quick win” methodologies and prioritizes depth, sustainability, and third-party verifiability.

The Fund’s carbon strategy is built around environmental and reputational integrity.

• Additionality: projects must demonstrate that they would not be viable without carbon finance. Financial additionality is assessed at the design stage, including in developing country contexts.
• Permanence: reforestation projects commit to 30-year crediting periods with appropriate buffer pools and safeguards against reversals.
• Leakage: clean cooking projects are designed with usage monitoring and replacement tracking to ensure real, sustained fuelwood reduction. For reforestation, leakage assessments are built into the Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) framework.

All projects undergo independent third-party validation and must be approved by host governments via formal non-objection letters.

Every REP Fund project is required to comply with the host country’s carbon market framework. Depending on the context, this can include:

• Obtaining non-objection letters (NOLs) or formal approvals for carbon credit issuance and transfer
• Engaging with Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) focal points to ensure alignment with national accounting systems
• Avoiding generation of credits from areas or activities that are already earmarked for other market or results-based finance mechanisms

The Fund does not engage in “double claiming” and will not count or sell credits that are also reported toward national NDCs unless authorized by the host country through corresponding adjustments (if relevant). Where national systems are still evolving, the Fund works with ministries to strengthen institutional readiness.

Community engagement is foundational to the REP Fund. Refugees and host communities are involved from the outset in:

• co-designing interventions, through structured consultations and participatory planning processes
• project implementation, including roles in tree nurseries, distribution networks, maintenance, and monitoring
• ongoing governance, through mechanisms such as committees and community liaison roles
• participatory monitoring and adaptive management, to ensure refinements over time based on community feedback and evolving needs.

Projects are designed to be locally relevant, culturally appropriate, and directly responsive to community priorities. All activities are grounded in respect for human rights and implemented in a conflict-sensitive manner, with safeguards in place to prevent harm and ensure equitable participation. This approach enhances both legitimacy and long-term sustainability.

REP Fund projects aim to generate "green jobs" that contribute to protecting or restoring the environment, including those that mitigate or adapt to climate change, at every stage of the value chain:

• Reforestation: seed collection, nursery operation, planting, maintenance, etc.
• Clean cooking: stove production, distribution, repair services, retail networks.
• Carbon value chain: through skills training and enterprise development, the Fund aims to foster long-term income generation and community-owned service delivery models with a particular focus on hiring women, youth, and underrepresented groups in project areas.

The REP Fund addresses a critical protection risk: exposure to violence or harm while collecting firewood or making charcoal – tasks that disproportionately fall on women and girls, who are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence in these contexts. Clean cooking projects directly reduce this exposure by providing access to cleaner technologies and alternative fuel sources, eliminating dependence on firewood and charcoal. Protection benefits include:

• reduced risk of sexual violence and harassment in forested areas
• improved indoor air quality and reduction of smoke associated with serious health complications and premature deaths within families
• lower time burden on women, enabling engagement in education or livelihoods
• prevention of further land degradation and exposure to hazards – such as soil erosion, landslides, flash floods and extreme heat – that endanger lives and livelihoods
• reduced tension between refugees and host communities over natural resource depletion and use, contributing to peaceful coexistence.

Protection outcomes will be monitored alongside environmental KPIs. UNHCR also works with local partners to ensure equal participation.

Benefit sharing is determined during project design in consultation with communities, host governments, and project developers. Typical structures include:

• fixed payments to refugees and vulnerable households from both refugee and host communities who are directly involved in project implementation (e.g., short-term employment opportunities, profit share)
• community-level investments, such as water points, solar lighting, or training centres, funded through a share of carbon revenues
• in-kind benefits, including access to stoves, seedlings, or land use rights.

Government partners may also receive a portion of carbon credits or associated revenue, as defined by national carbon market rules and regulatory frameworks. These contributions support nationally determined priorities and government-facilitated aspects of project delivery, such as land access or institutional coordination.

All arrangements are formalized in project agreements and monitored over time to ensure transparency and accountability. UNHCR does not retain any profit from carbon revenue. All proceeds are fully reinvested into project activities – either within the same community or in other eligible displacement-affected areas – to maximize long-term environmental and social impact. UNHCR overheads and institutional costs are not covered through carbon finance streams. Benefit sharing must be equitable, reflect local priorities, and meet the integrity requirements of carbon buyers and host governments alike.

The REP Fund uses a multi-stage procurement process designed specifically to bridge the operational realities of humanitarian delivery with the rigor of carbon market standards. It began with a global Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) to identify qualified project developers, followed by in-depth co-creation dialogues with shortlisted consortia. These dialogues are designed as a collaborative opportunity to reflect on feasibility insights, site-specific constraints and designs, and host government priorities. This phase also helps the REP Fund and bidders refine delivery models, carbon strategies, and benefit-sharing mechanisms before entering the final tender. The result is a more investable, technically sound project design. This process is considered innovative for the humanitarian sector, due to its combination of structured competition and technical co-development, its embedded community and government alignment, and its emphasis on de-risking delivery before contracts are awarded.

Project developers are selected through a competitive process that evaluates both technical strength and strategic fit. While specific evaluation criteria are issued at each stage, core considerations include: 

• the developer’s capacity to deliver high-integrity carbon projects in displacement settings
• demonstrated experience in reforestation and/or clean cooking
• ability to partner locally
• the robustness of their financial and operational model. 

UNHCR also assesses alignment with national frameworks, potential for scale, and the quality of proposed benefit-sharing and community engagement strategies. Final selection balances these factors to ensure projects are both viable and impactful across environmental, social, and financial dimensions.

Host governments are central partners in the REP Fund. Their involvement spans land identification, carbon ownership arrangements, integration with national plans, and regulatory compliance. This includes both national and local authorities, who play key roles in facilitating access, implementation, and alignment with community priorities. In Uganda and Rwanda, for example, government engagement has brought together multiple ministries – including those responsible for environment, forestry, energy, and refugee affairs. These actors have participated in field missions, contributed to technical scoping, and issued formal support letters for project implementation. This proactive, cross-sectoral involvement ensures that REP Fund projects are not operating in parallel to national systems but are embedded within them – reinforcing country leadership, institutional coordination, and long-term sustainability.

Yes. All REP Fund projects are mapped against host countries’ NDCs and NAPs, energy access plans, and forest restoration targets. In Uganda, for instance, the reforestation components align with national emissions reduction goals under the Energy Transition Plan, while clean cooking interventions contribute directly to government commitments to reduce biomass dependency. In Rwanda, projects support both the National Carbon Market Framework and the national Clean Cooking Strategy. Every project must demonstrate how it contributes to national priorities, and this is reviewed as part of the feasibility and procurement process.

Before implementation, each project must secure a non-objection letter (NOL) to ensure legal clarity around land use, carbon rights, and project scope. Carbon ownership structures are defined in alignment with national law, and any revenue-sharing arrangements involving government entities are formalized through agreements. All projects must also comply with relevant environmental, land tenure, and human rights obligations. UNHCR maintains ongoing engagement with ministries to facilitate any regulatory developments and ensure consistent alignment with legal frameworks. The Fund’s architecture was developed with internal and external legal advisors to ensure transparency, integrity, and compatibility with emerging Article 6 mechanisms under the Paris Agreement and leading voluntary carbon market standards.

The REP Fund operates as a blended finance platform, combining public grants, philanthropic support, and carbon market revenue. Initial funding has been secured from bilateral donors and multilateral institutions to cover feasibility assessments, early-stage design, overall project management and procurement. Long-term financing is anchored in the generation and sale of high-quality carbon credits, with revenue reinvested into project expansion, community benefit sharing, and operational sustainability. This hybrid structure allows the Fund to operate with stability while preparing projects to attract performance-based finance from carbon buyers.

Carbon revenues generated by REP Fund projects are reinvested directly into sustaining and expanding project impact. This includes scaling reforestation, clean cooking, and other eligible environmental interventions to new sites; supporting benefit-sharing commitments with communities; covering long-term monitoring and verification costs; and funding local infrastructure or services that align with project goals. Each project will have a predefined reinvestment and benefit-sharing structure, agreed with host governments and delivery partners. The goal is to ensure that revenue stays as close as possible to the communities generating the impact, reinforcing both environmental and social outcomes and local ownership.

The long-term vision of the REP Fund is to establish a scalable, high-integrity financing platform that embeds sustainable environmental restoration and protection into humanitarian response. The Fund is designed as a replicable model for integrating nature and energy solutions in displacement settings globally. It aims to demonstrate that refugee-hosting areas can be investable, climate action-relevant spaces that help ensure highly vulnerable communities or groups are not left behind and are enabled as local agents of change – if projects are well-designed, community-led, and aligned with national strategies. Ultimately, the Fund seeks to shift the narrative from temporary relief to systems-level transformation, using carbon finance not just as a funding tool, but as a lever for protection, resilience, livelihoods, and sustainability.

Yes. The REP Fund was built with scalability in mind. While the first three pilot sites in Uganda and Rwanda serve as early proof points, the Fund has already identified additional countries for expansion. Each new site undergoes its own feasibility assessment, government consultation, and design process. The delivery model is structured to grow through both horizontal replication (adding more countries) and vertical deepening (expanding project types or scale within a given country). As institutional capacity, financing, and carbon infrastructure improve, the Fund will evolve from pilot-driven implementation to a broader, country-led portfolio approach.

Transparency and knowledge-sharing are core principles of the REP Fund. Lessons from feasibility studies, co-creation dialogues, certification processes, and benefit-sharing structures are documented and shared through public reports, donor briefings, and strategic partnerships with research institutions. Over time, we aim to contribute to the broader climate and humanitarian finance discourse by publishing case studies, participating in technical forums, and supporting south-south learning between host countries. What is learned in one context – whether on land access, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) design, or stove adoption – will inform future rollouts and we hope it could benefit the wider sector.