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

Regions
  • Latin America and Caribbean
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • Brazil
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Green Climate Fund (GCF)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Mar 28, 2026
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Sustainable Investment Management Ltd.
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Agriculture and Forestry
  • Industry and Trade
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 85.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 85.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 425.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ GCF website

Updated in EWS Jul 21, 2026

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

As stated by the GCF, 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).

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

As stated on the financial intermediary's LinkedIn profile, Sustainable Investment Management Ltd (SIM) is an environmental finance advisory firm. We are based in London and Rio de Janeiro, with the objective to promote the financing of activities that result in positive environmental impacts. Designers of Responsible Commodities Facility (RCF) an initiative to promote the production and trade of deforestation and conversion free (DCF) soy from Brazil, preventing negative climate impacts and loss of habitat. 


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Designated national authority - Secretariat for International Affairs, Ministry of Finance (Brazil):

Address: Esplanada dos Ministérios, Bloco P, 6° andar, Brasilia, Brazil
Email: AND.GCF@fazenda.gov.br 

Dr. Mathias Jourdain de Alencastro - Secretary for International Affairs

Mr. Ivan Tiago Machado Oliveira - Deputy Secretary for Sustainable Development Finance
Phone: +556131422202

Ms. Livia Farias Ferreira de Oliveira - Operational Focal Point, General Coordinator for Sustainable Finance
Phone: +55 (61) 33412-1702
Email: livia@oliveira@fazenda.gov.br 

Ms. Luana Magalhães Duarte de Araújo - Operational Focal Point

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Requests for project information may be submitted using the IDP Request for Information by email to: disclosure@gcfund.org.

You can also submit an information request using this online form: https://www.greenclimate.fund/about/disclosure/form.  Additionally, if information requested is denied, an appeal can be filed to the Information Appeals Panel: iap@gcfund.org.  You can learn more about the Information Appeals Panel at: https://www.greenclimate.fund/about/disclosure/appeals.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF GREEN CLIMATE FUND 

The Independent Redress Mechanism (IRM) addresses complaints by people who believe they are negatively affected or may be affected by projects or programmes funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The complainant can raise issues related to any of GCF’s policies and procedures, including those relating to social and environmental issues, indigenous peoples, gender, and information disclosure, among others. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may seek to address the issues raised by facilitating problem solving or conducting a compliance process. You can learn more about the Independent Redress Mechanism and how to file a complaint at https://irm.greenclimate.fund/.

You can access a video about the IRM (English) at: https://youtu.be/1LanbriVhfs.

A brochure about the IRM can be accessed in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Mandarin, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Russian, Ukrainian, Korean, German, and Kiswahili at: https://irm.greenclimate.fund/.

How it works

How it works