This year’s COP was held in Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon River, at the gateway to the world’s largest tropical forest. Many hoped that it would be a “Forests COP” and ahead of the talks considerable efforts were made to ensure that forests finally got the attention they deserved. A particular focus was how to give effect to the agreement at COP28’s Global Stocktake to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. Despite these efforts, forests barely got a mention, with the call to develop a roadmap to end deforestation by 2030 taken from the decision text and relegated to a voluntary initiative under the COP30 Presidency, and due for next year. Similarly, the newly dedicated fund that was established for them, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, has yet to grow legs and still awaits initial capitalization. It remains unclear how countries will meet the 2030 target or when forests will again receive the airtime they deserve.
The issue is particularly pressing for Africa. Home to almost 20% of the world’s rainforests, the region boasts the world’s second largest tropical rainforest, the Congo Basin. Alongside the Coastal Forests of East Africa and the Guinean Forests, Africa’s tropical forests are classified as biodiversity hotspots. However, due to a significant funding and research gap, these hotspots are relatively neglected in comparison to their other, more famous counterparts: of the $20 billion that the world’s three major rainforests received between 2008 and 2022, only $3.2 billion (16%) went to the Congo Basin. The region also faces multiple challenges, with deforestation and biomass harvesting, as well as competing agricultural and other uses such as mining and urbanization.
The protection and restoration of the world’s forests has gained traction in recent years. A few years ago, the EU introduced its Deforestation Regulation, an attempt to reduce deforestation by banning products linked to deforestation and forest degradation after December 2020. The law featured around the same time as the introduction of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and its targets for the protection of high biodiversity areas, as well as the COP28 Global Stocktake’s forest targets. More recently, the 2025 G20 Summit’s Johannesburg Leaders Declaration highlighted the significance of forests. The Declaration calls for G20 member countries to mobilise finance for forests from public and private sources, while also avoiding discriminatory green economic policies, a veiled reference to the EU’s Deforestation Regulation.
COP30 saw the launch of the Belem Call for the Forests of the Congo Basin. A joint initiative led by France and Gabon with support from the World Bank, European Commission and African Development Bank, it aims to protect the Congo Basin and end deforestation in the region by 2030. Among its many objectives are to enhance forest management in the Basin, with participating states committing to ambitious national policies and strengthened forest governance, and with partners agreeing to provide results based finance of up to $2.5 billion over the next four years. What makes it particularly unique is its support of technology as a tool to address deforestation in the Basin, technologies that developing countries have long complained they have been unable to access. Its inclusion in the Call could help bridge the technology gap in the region.
The Tropical Forest Forever Facility
The Belem Call for the Forests of the Congo Basin was not the only forest finance facility to launch. One of the key features of the COP30 Presidency was the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), which it successfully launched at the meeting. First introduced in 2023 at COP28, , the TFFF aims to provide long-term, results-based financial support to Tropical Forest Countries (TFCs) for the conservation and restoration of their tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest (TSMBF).
The TFFF will have two separate but connected entities. The first is the Tropical Forest Investment Fund (TFIF), which will function as the Facility’s investment arm that will mobilise and manage financial resources to fund annual payments to participating countries. Importantly, resources are mostly generated through investments, offering a potentially more reliable source of funds, compared to grants, although the initial seed capital of $25 billion will need to be sourced from public grants. The second entity will oversee the TFFF’s forest cover rewards system. Using a blended finance model and with a combined target of $125 billion for the fund, the TFFF provides payments to countries that hold more than one billion hectares of tropical and subtropical forests. Countries will have access to payments if they prove that they have maintained their forests or reduced forest loss compared to the previous year, by relying on widely available satellite monitoring.
The TFFF differentiates itself by rewarding forest cover maintenance and recovery. Through annual, large-scale payments, the TFFF seeks to incentivise the long-term maintenance and expansion of tropical forests in developing countries. A significant portion of this funding is meant for indigenous people and local communities, people who are directly responsible for the protection and restoration of forests.
The Facility has gained some momentum since its inception. Leaders endorsed the TFFF at the BRICS Summit hosted by Brazil earlier this year, and the Johannesburg Leaders Declaration recognised the TFFF as an “innovative instrument to incentivise the conservation of tropical forests and support sustainable development.” At COP30, the TFFF secured almost $7 billion in pledges, some way to but not enough to meet its capitalization requirement.
African countries had some involvement in the development of the TFFF, with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana being part of an Interim Steering Committee alongside potential sponsor countries that shaped the development of the Facility. Both countries also endorsed the TFFF Declaration. Gabon, the DRC, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea all stand to benefit from the TFIF’s model of regular payments and distributed returns – a change from once-off grants. Additionally, 20% of the funds to local communities and indigenous people could encourage community-based land management, low-emission agricultural practices and reforestation.
Funding, Momentum and Competition
Africa’s rainforests stand to benefit from both the TFFF and the Belém Call to Action. However, there are issues with both. The TFFF’s funding structure doesn’t have provisions for research, an area that requires funding to improve understanding of African rainforest ecosystems, vulnerabilities and potential. And although countries pledged $7 billion towards the TFFF at COP30 (with the COP30 Presidency aiming to reach $10 billion by the end of the year), this figure falls short of the $25 billion it needs to get up and running. Securing its ultimate goal of $125 billion will require mobilisation and a wide contributor and investor base. Initial pledges are steering momentum in the right direction, but there have been setbacks: the United Kingdom, initially a member of the Interim Steering Committee as a sponsor country, ultimately decided not to contribute towards the Facility.
Additionally, the launch of two tropical forest initiatives raises questions about potential competition between the two. Although different in nature, there are concerns that the TFFF and Belém Call to Action could compete for attention and funding, with one COP30 delegate noting the awkward optics of the two launches. There is also the issue of commercial interests from mining, oil and agriculture sectors, key drivers of deforestation and reduction of forest cover. Although the TFFF’s financial provisions could incentivise local communities towards more sustainable practices and forest management, it will not completely replace the presence these commercial interests have established in those areas. Over and above the funding, the TFFF must establish systems that support communities being less reliant on resource extraction.
Ultimately, COP30 delivered some progress for the preservation of tropical forests with two funded initiatives, although it is unfortunate that parties could not agree to a roadmap to end deforestation. The success of the TFFF and the Call to Action relies on timelines for operationalisation, transparent distribution of funds, cooperation with local actors and maintaining and building momentum towards reaching funding targets.
