Statement on Brazil’s Launch of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility

A few days ago, at the COP30 Leader's Summit, in Belém, the government of Brazil, with leaders of more than thirty countries, announced the official launch of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), a global financing mechanism to reward countries and communities that keep their tropical forests standing, rather than merely preventing deforestation.

Key Details of this Initiative:

• TFFF is a blended-finance vehicle combining sovereign/public contributions with private capital, so that forests become a durable financial asset.
• The ambition targets roughly US$ 125 billion total comprised of ~US$ 25 billion in public/sponsor capital and ~US$ 100 billion from private institutional investors.
• At least 20% of funds are reserved for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs).
• More than 70 countries with tropical forests are eligible to participate and receive payments under the mechanism.
• In total, 34 tropical forest countries endorsed the TFFF Declaration, covering over 90% of the tropical forests in developing countries.
• Thus far, Norway committed $3 billion over the next ten years, subject to specific conditions, Brazil and Indonesia reconfirmed their $1 billion commitments, Portugal committed $1 million, France indicated that, under specific conditions, they would consider committing up to 500 million Euros until 2030, the Netherlands committed $5 million for the secretariat.

This initiative marks an ambitious and potentially game-changing step toward protecting the world's tropical forests - which, in our interconnected world, are vital to a healthy future for all of us. Forests are key to a stable climate; they provide rainfall, sustain livelihoods, biodiversity, and our global economy.

EDF congratulates the Government of Brazil and its partners for beginning COP30 on a high note, by demonstrating leadership from and for Tropical Forest Countries.

We encourage all participating governments to match their commitments with the scale of this ambition and to do so with urgency. It is equally imperative that the private sector and the world's governments see this as an opportunity to respond to our collective need to invest in nature - that is with funds that are beyond symbolic and available immediately.

The Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) builds upon previous market-based forest and climate-based mechanisms, including jurisdictional REDD+. The two mechanisms are closely related but distinct and can be highly complementary if designed to reinforce each other rather than compete. TFFF will have the added benefit of learning from challenges JREDD+ mechanisms faced, specifically in relation to implementation.

Both mechanisms highlight the role of IPLCs, and we are especially encouraged that TFFF's design earmarks 20% of disbursements for IPLCs directly.

In the Amazon - a tropical forest the size of the contiguous US - almost 90% of the deforestation has been outside of the Indigenous territories and only about 10% inside them.

Indigenous and traditional peoples now hold rights to half of this forest - containing most of its carbon and critical to the planet's climate. Yet they receive under 1% of climate finance. The TFFF can finally change that, channeling vital support to the front-line defenders of our forests, who have also provided the most effective response to climate change to date.

Environmental Defense Fund welcomes this hopeful milestone and looks forward to working with partners to turn this global commitment into real benefit for people and nature alike.