The Tropical Forest Forever Facility launched on Nov. 6, just before the official start of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP30, in Belém, Brazil, with an unexpected splash: $5.5 billion in first-day commitments from governments.
The scale of pledges for the fund — which will harness investments rather than aid to pay countries to protect their tropical forests — is far short of the ultimate goal of $25 billion, but higher than expected, according to insiders. Brazil, as COP30 host, helped usher in this plan. The fund itself will be hosted at the World Bank.
“We are feeling very good,” Garo Batmanian, general director of the Brazilian Forest Service who helped shepherd the fund from idea to reality, told Devex. “This was above our expectation … We think this is a very good start.”
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
