By 2025, children who are 18 years or younger today will represent more than half of the world‘s workforce. A critical strategic opportunity exists to insure the resiliency, effectiveness, and overall return on investment on 20-30 year REDD projects by investing in innovative school-based integrated educational approaches which empower young people to build better futures through life-sustaining values, practical skills and knowledge. These essential capacities will enable forest communities to convert CO2 into things they and the world at large will thrive on – healthy ecosystems, healthy people, and healthy economic opportunities. Such education and economic empowerment of the children will mitigate leakage and ensure sustainability in REDD project areas, strengthening investor confidence. Allocation of a percentage of REDD funds flowing to such integrated school programs will reduce risk and yield social, economic and environmental benefit for all parties concerned.