Brazil Launches $125B Forest Fund to Pay Countries for Conservation

Brazil unveiled an ambitious new financing mechanism at the COP30 climate summit in Belém that could revolutionize how the world protects its remaining tropical forests. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) represents a groundbreaking shift from traditional conservation funding by creating a permanent endowment that pays countries and communities to keep their forests intact rather than cut them down.

The facility has already secured over $5.5 billion in initial commitments, with organizers targeting $125 billion total from government and institutional investors. Unlike previous project-based conservation schemes, the TFFF operates like an endowment fund—money is invested in bonds, investors receive their returns first, and remaining profits flow to qualifying forest nations and local communities as long-term, predictable payments for verified forest protection and restoration.

What makes this approach particularly promising is its recognition of forests’ true value. For too long, the global economy has rewarded cutting down forests for timber, agriculture, or development while ignoring the critical climate and biodiversity services that standing forests provide. The TFFF aims to correct this market failure by making forest conservation financially competitive with destruction.

Significantly, the fund mandates that 20% of payments go directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities—groups that scientific research consistently shows are among the most effective forest guardians. With the World Bank serving as interim host, environmental advocates are cautiously optimistic that this Brazilian-led initiative could finally provide the sustained financing needed to protect the world’s tropical forests at the scale required by the climate crisis.