At the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, world leaders agreed to support forest conservation in developing nations. More than thirty years later, that promise remains largely unfulfilled. Tropical forests, home to much of the planet’s biodiversity and essential for regulating the climate, continue to disappear.
Between 2002 and 2022, global data from Global Forest Watch show that tropical humid primary rainforests shrank by 8%, an area roughly the size of Pakistan. The loss has slowed in some countries, such as Brazil and Indonesia, but the overall trend remains alarming.
The core problem has been economic. Clearing forests for timber, farming, or cattle often brings faster profits than preserving them. Most global markets still fail to assign real financial value to intact forests and their ecosystem services.
New Approach from Brazil
Brazil is now leading a global effort to change that equation. The country has launched the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a new international finance mechanism that pays tropical countries for keeping forests standing. The model links payments to satellite-monitored results, rewarding countries that maintain low deforestation rates and reducing payments when forest loss increases.
Unlike previous mechanisms such as REDD+, which focus on paying for emissions reductions, the TFFF pays directly for forest conservation. Each hectare of preserved forest generates a payment. The initiative aims to make standing forests a steady source of national income rather than a barrier to development.
Brazil formally launched the TFFF on November 6, 2025, during the COP30 Climate Summit in Belém. The government has committed $1 billion to the facility. Indonesia has matched that amount, while Norway pledged $3 billion. Other countries, including Portugal, France, and the Netherlands, also announced contributions.
At the summit, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said, “The Tropical Forest Forever Facility we are launching today is an unprecedented initiative. For the first time in history, countries of the Global South will take a leading role in a forest agenda.”
Brazil’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva called the launch “a turning point in the history of tropical forest conservation,” noting that the mechanism provides permanent financial incentives for preservation.
How the Facility Works
The TFFF aims to build a total fund of $125 billion through a mix of public, private, and philanthropic capital. The initial $25 billion will come from sponsor countries such as Brazil, China, and Norway, which will act as junior investors, accepting the first level of risk.
This initial pool will then help attract an additional $100 billion from private and institutional investors, including pension funds and corporations. The combined capital will be invested in low-risk, non-fossil-fuel assets in emerging markets. Expected annual returns of $3 to $4 billion will fund payments to tropical countries that maintain low deforestation levels.
The World Bank has agreed to act as trustee and interim host of the facility. It will manage the Tropical Forest Investment Fund (TFIF), which oversees investment returns and disbursements.
Participating countries will qualify for annual payments if they keep deforestation below 0.5% per year, measured through transparent satellite data. Each eligible hectare of conserved forest could generate around $4 per year in payments.
Who Benefits
The TFFF targets 74 developing countries with tropical and subtropical forests, covering over one billion hectares. The program rewards countries that already have low deforestation rates, creating incentives to sustain them.
A major feature of the TFFF is its commitment to Indigenous peoples and local communities. Twenty percent of all payments will go directly to these groups. Sonia Guajajara, Brazil’s Minister of Indigenous Peoples, said, “Ensuring that at least 20% of resources go directly to these guardians is a historic achievement and a decisive step toward equity and the recognition of ancestral knowledge.”
For many Indigenous groups, this could become the largest and most direct flow of international conservation finance ever received. It could fund land protection, sustainable livelihoods, and actions against illegal mining and logging.
Monitoring and Verification
The credibility of the TFFF rests on reliable, open forest monitoring. Participating countries are expected to use their own national monitoring systems, if these meet international transparency and accuracy standards. If not, they can rely on independent systems such as Global Forest Watch or the European Union’s Joint Research Center.
A shared forest definition will apply across all countries, setting a canopy threshold of 20–30%, a minimum tree height of 5 meters, and excluding plantations. These rules aim to make data consistent and comparable.
The TFFF’s launch at COP30 in Belém was endorsed by 53 countries, including 19 potential sovereign investors. The group represents over 90% of tropical forests in developing nations, among them Brazil, Indonesia, China, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister of Norway, stated, “It is vital to stop deforestation to reduce the impacts of climate change and limit biodiversity loss. There is no time to lose if we are to save the world’s tropical forests.”
Another concern is maintaining transparency in how countries spend the funds. All recipients must report their expenditures publicly to allow scrutiny from civil society and local communities.
A Test for Global Cooperation
The TFFF could become the largest and most comprehensive forest finance mechanism ever created. If fully funded, it may provide stable, long-term income to dozens of developing nations while protecting over one billion hectares of tropical forest.
The facility’s success depends on continued political will and financial commitments beyond COP30. If major economies fail to follow Brazil and Indonesia’s lead, the initiative could lose momentum.
For now, the launch marks a rare moment of alignment between tropical forest nations, donors, and private investors. The facility’s architects see it as a practical answer to a long-standing global failure to pay for the ecological services that forests provide.
As President Lula said in Belém, “We will take pride in remembering that it was in the heart of the Amazon rainforest that we took this step together.”
