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. <\/p>\n
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 (\u20ac4.7 billion) in pledges.<\/p>\n
What is the Tropical Forest Forever Facility?<\/p>\n
The fund is President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva\u2019s flagship project as he welcomes world leaders to the edge of the Amazon for COP30<\/a>\u2014 an effort to draw attention and money to the imperilled rainforest crucial to curbing global warming. <\/p>\n Financed by interest-bearing debt instead of donations, the fund, dubbed theTropical Forests Forever Facility<\/a>, 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 (\u20ac864.9 million) contribution to kick it off. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Through investments in fixed-rate assets, the fund aims to issue $25 billion (\u20ac21.6 billion) of debt within its first few years before leveraging that into a pot worth $125 billion (\u20ac108.1 billion) that can pay developing countries to protect their tropical rainforests.<\/p>\n A list of more than 70 heavily forested countries \u2014 from Congo to Colombia \u2014 will be eligible for payments as long as they keep deforestation<\/a>below a set rate. Nations that fail to protect their forests will see their payouts reduced at a punitive rate for every hectare that\u2019s destroyed.<\/p>\n The fund\u2019s rules also call for 20 per cent of the money to go to Indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n \u201cThese 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,\u201d said Wanjira Mathai, managing director for Africa and Global Partnerships at the research organisation the World Resources Institute.\u201cThese commitments could be transformative, but only if governments turn these words into action.\u201d<\/p>\n How is Europe involved?<\/p>\n Norway pledged $3 billion (\u20ac2.59 billion) \u2014 the biggest commitment of the day \u2014 raising hopes about Lula\u2019s ambitions becoming a reality. But the fine print on Norway\u2019s announcement \u2014 contingent on Brazil raising some $9.8 billion (\u20ac8.47 billion) in other contributions \u2014 has ramped up the pressure on Brazil to deliver. <\/p>\n Other pledges include $500 million (\u20ac432 million) from France<\/a>, along with $5 million (\u20ac4.3 million) from the Netherlands and $1 million (\u20ac865,000) from Portugal<\/a>, toward setup costs. <\/p>\n Officials said they expected to hear about Germany\u2019s contribution on Friday. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed support for the initiative on Thursday but declined to make a pledge.<\/p>\n Brazil<\/a>is also banking on the participation of the private sector after the fund reaches $10 billion (\u20ac8.65 billion), considered enough to start preparing bond issuances.<\/p>\n When asked about possible concerns on Thursday, Norwegian Climate Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen said he thought the risks to the fund were \u201cmanageable.\u201d<\/p>\n The backing from almost 50 countries is encouraging, says Mirela Sandrini, Interim Executive Director at World Resources Institute Brasil.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the Amazon to the Congo to Southeast Asia, the forests that sustain us all are facing a global red alert,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cIf enough countries contribute, this new mechanism could offer a breakthrough, flipping the economics of deforestation by making standing forests more profitable than clearing them.\u201d<\/p>\n Is this enough to stop deforestation?<\/p>\n Zoe Quiroz Cullen, from conservation charity Fauna & Flora, praised the programme and emphasised the need for governments to act quickly<\/a>.<\/p>\n