As a requirement under the FCPF Methodological Framework, all FCPF emission reductions payment agreements have a corresponding benefit sharing plan that stipulates what is done with the payments received from the World Bank. These benefit sharing provisions apply under the ERPA and are also expected to be applied for excess ERs.

Each benefit sharing plan responds to the specific context of the country, but generally a small percentage is set aside to cover the cost of running the program, while the vast majority of the funds are allocated to the actors responsible for achieving the emission reductions. Examples include communities implementing forest protection plans, Indigenous communities protecting their ancestral forests, or farmer groups adopting low-carbon agroforestry initiatives.