The Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) is a left-of-center coalition of grantmaking organizations that funds tropical forest conservation efforts internationally. ¹ It is fiscally sponsored by Climateworks Foundation and operates campaigns that advocate forest conservation policies and indigenous people’s issues in tropical forest communities. ²

CLUA’s advocacy campaigns promote the idea that humans have to curate environmental factors, with a priority of reducing atmospheric carbon, to prevent climate catastrophes. It supports forest conservation as forests naturally sequester carbon. ³

Background

The Climate and Land Use Alliance was founded in 2006 as a project of Climateworks Foundation in collaboration with the Ford Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to fund and advocate in support of forest conservation efforts. The coalition was later joined by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies and the Switzerland-based Good Energies Foundation. ¹

Before the CLUA’s founding, the Meridian Institute was hired to develop a collaborative grantmaking strategy for the coalition members. The result was the creation of a “Memorandum of Understanding” that led to the founding of CLUA, according to the Meridian Institute. It also reports that it has since continued to work with CLUA as an advisor, overseeing its $35 million annual grantmaking. ⁴ In 2023, Climateworks Foundation reported making a $328,028 grant to the Meridian Institute. ⁵

Climateworks Foundation reported on its 2023 tax return that it is the direct controlling entity of the Climate and Land Use Alliance LLC. In 2023, it reported CLUA had $33.7 million in total income and $52 million in total assets. ⁶ Climateworks Foundation also reported that CLUA oversees the Climateworks Foundation’s Forests and Land Use program, which in 2023 was reported to have $63.3 million in expenses and disbursed $43.9 million in grants. ²

Activities

The Climate and Land Use Alliance primarily operates as a grantmaking operation and develops initiatives through a board of directors that consists of one member from each of its coalition members. According to a 2018 Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors report, CLUA members individually determine which initiatives they fund, and funding for initiatives is either pooled by Climateworks Foundation or individually disbursed by member organizations. It also reported that the grantmaking is organized by CLUA through members making their own grant solicitations, and applications are reviewed by all CLUA members. ¹

In 2018, as reported by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, CLUA expanded its activities to include funding private-sector agriculture companies, global environmentalist advocacy campaigns, and for “conflict-free commodities,” which it lists as palm oil, wheat, and soy. It also funds campaigns opposing infrastructure development and natural resource production in tropical forests and communities. ¹

As of October 2025, CLUA’s grantmaking initiatives were funding conservation efforts in Brazil, Central America, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, and Peru. ⁷ CLUA also funds advocacy initiatives globally that claim to directly fund issues affecting indigenous communities in tropical forests by making grants to “locally-controlled funds” and by funding campaigns that advocate for finance institutions and public spending to only fund businesses that align with CLUA’s forest conservation efforts. ⁸

Forest, People, Climate

Forest, People, Climate (FPC) is a grantmaking coalition organized by the Climate and Land Use Alliance that funds forest conservation efforts and indigenous community and “afro-descendant” advocacy efforts for people living in tropical forests. It has partnered with the World Resources Institute (WRI) to judge the alleged efficacy of conservation efforts to dictate the grantmaking of member organizations. ⁹

FPC funders consist of the Arapyau Institute, Ballmer Group, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Institute for Climate and Society, CLUA, Climateworks Foundation, David and Lucille Packard Foundation, Erol Foundation, Ford Foundation, Good Energies Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Jacobs Futura Foundation, the Joseph and Vera Long Foundation, Klarman Family Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, Skoll Foundation, and Vere Initiatives. ⁹

As of October 2025, FPC reported plans to spend $2 billion between 2025 and 2030 on initiatives opposing deforestation, and stated at the time that it had already secured $780 million in funding. ¹⁰

Climate and Forests 2030

Climate and Forests 2030 is a Climate and Land Use Alliance program that conducts anti-deforestation and indigenous advocacy. It promotes the idea that climate catastrophes are imminent and will occur if humans do not lower the amount of atmospheric carbon, allegedly requiring humans to curate environmental factors to a “safe range.” As a result, it advocates for forest conservation due to forests’ ability to sequester carbon. ³

Funding

In 2021, the Ford Foundation made a four-year, $2 million grant to the Climate and Land Use Alliance for Spanish-language environmentalist campaigns in Peru and Columbia. ¹¹ Then, it made a two-year, $750,000 grant in 2023 and a two-year, $940,000 grant in 2025 to CLUA for “general support.” ^{12 13}

In 2021, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation made a $350,000 grant to CLUA. ¹⁴

1. “Climate and Land Use Alliance.” Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. October 15, 2018. https://www.rockpa.org/case-study-climate-and-land-use-alliance/.
2. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Climateworks Foundation. Schedule O.
3. “About Us.” Climate and Forests 2030. Accessed October 26, 2025. https://www.climateandforests2030.org/about/.
4. “The Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA).” Meridian International Center. Accessed October 26, 2025. https://merid.org/case-studies/climate-and-land-use-alliance-clua/.
5. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Climateworks Foundation. Schedule I.
6. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Climateworks Foundation. Schedule R, Part I.
7. Home. Climate and Land Use Alliance. Accessed October 26, 2025. https://climateandlandusealliance.org/.
8. “Global Initiative.” Climate and Land Use Alliance. Accessed October 26, 2025. https://climateandlandusealliance.org/global-initiative/. 
9. “About Us.” Forest, People, Climate. Accessed October 26, 2025. https://www.forestspeopleclimate.org/about-us/.
10. “Our Approach.” Forest, People, Climate. Accessed October 26, 2025. https://www.forestspeopleclimate.org/our-approach/. 
11. “For Spanish-language strategic communications to raise awareness of and mobilize support for community land and resource rights, sustainable infrastructure, and forests as a climate solution, especially in Colombia and Peru.” Ford Foundation. Accessed October 24, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/climate-and-land-use-alliance-llc-141787/.
12. “General support to promote land use policies and practices that mitigate climate change, protect land and resource rights, and deliver economic, social and ecological benefits.” Ford Foundation. Accessed October 24, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/climate-and-land-use-alliance-llc-153808/.
13. “General support to promote land use policies and practices that mitigate climate change, protect land and resource rights, and deliver economic, social and ecological benefits.” Ford Foundation. Accessed October 24, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/climate-and-land-use-alliance-llc-146366/.
14. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990PF). Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation. 2021. Part XIV.