By Jeff Kapembwa
World leaders and other interest groups have converged for a two-day-conference in the Amazon City of Belem, Brazil to launch the US$5 billion Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) arguably to mitigate the indiscriminate decimation of tropical forests and affecting global ecosystems.
The United Nations, concerned at the accelerated rate of tropical forest decrees-from the Congo Basin to the Amazon and other parts of the world, warns against uncouth practices warning that such acts abetted by financial gain, risks greater loss of global ecosystems and calls for reversal of such actions by 2030.
Officiating at the 6-7 November conference in Belem, which also attracted Zambia, other developed, Least Developed and Developing Countries-all affected by the depleting tropical forests, UN Secretary General António Guterres called for unwavering protection of such tropical forestry to protect mother earth, citing their important role of helping to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
“Without tropical forests, there is no path to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
They protect water and soils, store and remove billions of tons of carbon, regulate rainfall, shape weather patterns across continents, and sustain millions of people.” Guterres told delegates with caution:
We are dangerously close to a tipping point that could push these ecosystems beyond recovery. We have pledged to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030.
Crossing that line would unleash droughts, fires, and biodiversity loss on a scale humanity cannot control.”
Its time the world came together and deliver on its promise to halt indiscriminate decimation of the tropical forests by supporting tropical nations, a gesture, Guterres described an obligation and not a favour but a shared duty of ensuring the cutting of emissions from deforestation while seeking to preserve forests’ immense capacity to store carbon.
Rewarding countries for keeping forests standing, is a show of oneness globally and helps accelerate efforts to become resilient against climate crisis.
Guterres laments the indiscriminate and relentless assault on Tropical forests that ‘breathe life into our planet’.
There is a greater need to support Indigenous Peoples and forest communities, and help to advance climate justice and safeguard cultures whose knowledge has stewarded nature for millennia.
There is a greater need to mop long-term, predictable, and affordable finance, to help close the recurring and one of the most persistent gaps in global climate action, arguing fairness, inclusion and integrity must be front and centre.
“Finance must reach the ground – those protecting forests with their hands, hearts, and heritage.”
He commended Brazil for launching the TFFF, describing it a statement of solidarity and hope. “It shows that developing countries – while bearing the heaviest impacts of the climate crisis – are leading with solutions for all.”
From the Amazon to the Congo Basin to Southeast Asia, forest nations prove that protecting nature can drive growth, stability, and dignity while urging the world to reciprocate with similar ambitions to preserve tropical forests.
“Now the world must respond with matching ambition. Governments, development banks, and the private sector must join forces to close the finance gap, unlock investment for sustainable forest economies and scale up monitoring and restoration.
Together, we can ensure tropical forests stand forever – as living pillars of climate stability, biodiversity, resilience, and peace.
Last year, the world lost the equivalent of 18 football fields of tropical primary forest – every minute.
The Tropical Forest Forever Facility is a bold mechanism to make standing forests more valuable than cleared land – aligning conservation with opportunity, and solidarity with shared prosperity.
The TFFF, aims to create a global forest facility, or fund, through national contributions totaling $25 billion (€21.5 billion) that would, it is hoped, be quadrupled by private investors — taking the kitty to $125 billion.
Arguably, the idea seeks to lure investment in Brazil’s high-yielding bonds, with investors receiving an annual fixed interest rate return from the roughly $4 billion of expected annual profit.
After interest is paid to investors, the rest will be distributed among developing countries that commit to preserving or restoring their rain forests.
Paid on a per-hectare basis, these funds will nearly triple the current financing available for tropical forest protection. In some cases, the monies could be well above the entire national budgets for environment and forestry ministries.
And Brazil leader, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in launching the TFFF in the Amazon city of Belém, in the State of Pará, invited other nations to support the initiative, calling for preservation and include them in economic growth agendas.
“Forests are worth more standing than being cut down. They should be included in our countries’ GDP. Ecosystem services need to be remunerated, as do the people who protect forests. International green funds are not up to the challenge,”
The TFFF, is an innovative financing tool to help countries conserve tropical forests, which are present in more than 70 nations, including Brazil.
“The TFFF is not based on donations. Its role will be to complement the mechanisms that pay for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” he pointed out.
Key contributions to the growth of global economies among others are to take the lead with resources that should activate the fund to leverage private capital.
The proposal, designed by the Brazilian government, aims to initially reach US$25 billion with the participation of countries and US$125 billion with private capital.
The resources generated from investments in high-return projects will finance the maintenance of preserved forest environments per hectare.
“The profits will be shared by tropical forest countries and investors. These resources will go directly to national governments, which will be able to guarantee long-term sovereign programs,” the president noted.
The fund should also ensure that one-fifth of the resources are allocated to indigenous peoples and local communities, he went on.
The maintenance of standing forests will be monitored by satellites capable of identifying compliance with keeping deforestation below 0.5% in eligible countries.
According to Lula, it will be possible to pay countries US$4 per hectare preserved. “It seems modest, but we are talking about 1.1 billion hectares of tropical forests spread across 73 developing countries,” he stated.
The announcement comes after the Brazilian government contributed US$1 billion on September 23, during the first dialogue to present the tool promoted by Brazil and the United Nations Secretariat (UNFCCC) in Brasília.
President Lula disclosed that the World Bank Board would host the TFFF’s financial mechanism and secretariat, with a governance model that is also hailed as innovative.
Several countries with tropical forests and financiers, he says, have announced their support for the mechanism. “We will be proud to remember that it was in the heart of the Amazon rainforest that we took this step together,” Lula declared.
Regrettably, President Lula notes that the climate crisis has reached a point of no return, citing the widespread mortality of warm-water coral reefs.
He emphasized that ocean warming can alter the Amazon’s rainfall patterns and warned of the risk of savannization.
This if allowed could have serious impacts on the global climate and agriculture.
He underscored that only multilateralism can address the current scenario, stating that “no country can face the climate crisis alone” and that “it is time to join forces again and unleash synergy” among environmental agreements.