The Rockefeller Foundation has announced an investment of $5 million in the Amazon Reforestation Fund, a vehicle created by Mombak.

The investment is part of a $100 million financing to support the largest biodiverse reforestation effort for carbon removal in the region, enabling Mombak, a Brazilian startup that aims to generate high-quality carbon credits through reforestation of the Amazon, to remove carbon, improve soil quality, enhance biodiversity, and create sustainable economic alternatives for local communities. The foundation’s investment in Mombak alongside several blue-chip investors represents the latest effort to strengthen the marketplace for carbon credits. The company’s first project in northern Brazil will plant three million trees with more than 100 native species, including 200,000 seedlings of endangered species. More than one million trees will be planted by next month, including endangered or vulnerable species. The first project created more than 50 formal jobs in the local municipality.

“Nature-based solutions could help reduce one-third of the necessary global emissions by the end of the decade, but remain grossly underfunded, with an estimated $700 billion financing gap per year,” said Rockefeller Foundation senior vice president of innovative finance Maria Kozloski. “The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to help close this gap by investing in Mombak’s innovative model that seeks to remove carbon by reforesting the Amazon.”

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