The RCF was created in response to the Cerrado Manifesto in 2017 which called for action from the Brazilian government, soy buyers, traders and investors to protect the Brazilian Cerrado. It aimed at creating a new model of climate finance beyond carbon markets, that could be financially sustainable and highly scalable.

Supporting its development was WWF, The Nature Conservancy, UNEP, Conservation International, the World Economic Forum’s Tropical Forest Alliance, Good Energies Foundation, and the Global Lab for Climate Finance, and it is now overseen by an Environmental Advisory Board with the participation of some of these organisations, as well as Proforest, IPAM and BVRio.

Postponed due to the global pandemic, the first RCF programme launched in 2022 with investment from UK supermarkets Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose who subscribed $11 million of four-year green bonds (green agribusiness receivables certificates), issued in Brazil and registered on the Vienna Stock Exchange, to capitalise a debt Fund.

By 2025 the RCF had grown to US$60 million with additional investment (between 2022 and 2025) from banks Santander, Rabobank, IDB Invest, impact fund AGRI3, and the Mobilising Finance for Forests (MFF) program, funded by the UK and Dutch Governments and managed by FMO Dutch development bank.