Last year, the Brazilian government proposed a plan to pay countries to preserve their tropical forests. Over the past few months, they have been finalising details and garnering support.
On Thursday, as part of COP30, they unveiled the long-awaited details of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility(TFFF), which has already drawn in $5.5 billion (€4.7 billion) in pledges.
What is the Tropical Forest Forever Facility?
The fund is President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s flagship project as he welcomes world leaders to the edge of the Amazon for COP30— an effort to draw attention and money to the imperilled rainforest crucial to curbing global warming.
Financed by interest-bearing debt instead of donations, the fund, dubbed theTropical Forests Forever Facility, seeks to turn the economic logic of deforestation on its head by making it more lucrative for governments to keep their trees rather than cut them down. Brazil announced $1 billion (€864.9 million) contribution to kick it off.
Although destroying rainforests makes money for cattle ranchers, miners and illegal loggers, Brazil hopes to convince countries that preserving forests promises richer rewards for the entire world by absorbing huge amounts of planet-warming emissions.
Through investments in fixed-rate assets, the fund aims to issue $25 billion (€21.6 billion) of debt within its first few years before leveraging that into a pot worth $125 billion (€108.1 billion) that can pay developing countries to protect their tropical rainforests.
A list of more than 70 heavily forested countries — from Congo to Colombia — will be eligible for payments as long as they keep deforestationbelow a set rate. Nations that fail to protect their forests will see their payouts reduced at a punitive rate for every hectare that’s destroyed.
The fund’s rules also call for 20 per cent of the money to go to Indigenous peoples.
“These initiatives demonstrate a massive and welcome shift in recognising the central role that Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and local communities play in protecting the forests that sustain us,” said Wanjira Mathai, managing director for Africa and Global Partnerships at the research organisation the World Resources Institute.“These commitments could be transformative, but only if governments turn these words into action.”
How is Europe involved?
Norway pledged $3 billion (€2.59 billion) — the biggest commitment of the day — raising hopes about Lula’s ambitions becoming a reality. But the fine print on Norway’s announcement — contingent on Brazil raising some $9.8 billion (€8.47 billion) in other contributions — has ramped up the pressure on Brazil to deliver.
Other pledges include $500 million (€432 million) from France, along with $5 million (€4.3 million) from the Netherlands and $1 million (€865,000) from Portugal, toward setup costs.
Officials said they expected to hear about Germany’s contribution on Friday. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed support for the initiative on Thursday but declined to make a pledge.
Brazilis also banking on the participation of the private sector after the fund reaches $10 billion (€8.65 billion), considered enough to start preparing bond issuances.
When asked about possible concerns on Thursday, Norwegian Climate Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen said he thought the risks to the fund were “manageable.”
The backing from almost 50 countries is encouraging, says Mirela Sandrini, Interim Executive Director at World Resources Institute Brasil.
“From the Amazon to the Congo to Southeast Asia, the forests that sustain us all are facing a global red alert,” she said.
“If enough countries contribute, this new mechanism could offer a breakthrough, flipping the economics of deforestation by making standing forests more profitable than clearing them.”
Is this enough to stop deforestation?
Zoe Quiroz Cullen, from conservation charity Fauna & Flora, praised the programme and emphasised the need for governments to act quickly.
“Climate change and nature loss are at crisis point, and we need to embrace all opportunities to channel finance to high integrity nature-based solutions,” she says.
“There are of course elements to iron out, but right now – and I cannot stress this enough – our biggest risk is delay.”
However, some nonprofit organisations say the initiative falls short and puts profit above peoples. They disagree with the idea of putting a price on nature.
“While the TFFF acknowledges the role of traditional peoples, it remains part of the financialisation of nature – a model that has failed to stop deforestation or protect communities, and instead prioritises profit,” says Lise Masson from Friends of the Earth International.
“Rather than paying historical climate debt or securing land rights, the TFFF deepens dependency and ties environmental policy to market interests under World Bank control.”
Eduardo Raguse at Amigas da Terra Brasil echoed these sentiments and called for land rights, reparations, and debt cancellation rather than another financial scheme.
“Putting a price tag on forests is just colonialism in a new suit,” he says. “The TFFF hands control of our territories to the same banks and governments that drove deforestation in the first place, while forcing the Global South to guarantee profits for the North.”