Your Excellency Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil,
Excellencies, colleagues and friends.
The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) is great idea, a brilliant idea. And it is a great idea at the right time. Because we are at the edge of ecological tipping points.
The Amazon and many other tropical rainforests are crucial for global climate balance, for biodiversity and for local economies. And they are under great duress. The Amazon, once a vast carbon sink, is emitting 20 per cent more carbon than it absorbs. Science warns us that if deforestation and climate change continue unchecked, over half of tropical rainforests could turn into savannahs by the end of this century.
Protecting tropical forests, which also give us so many solutions, is therefore essential. We must encourage sovereign investors and private investors to step up and into this place. To provide long-term capital. And we must ensure that these investors get a great return.
Innovative forest finance mechanisms like the TFFF will be key. They can promote aspects such as enhanced autonomy for beneficiary countries. And enable trust and responsibility. In the TFFF, which Brazil is aiming to make a key outcome of its COP30 Presidency, we have a facility that embodies simplicity with strength. This is a core tool in the toolbox.
We need a mechanism that provides direct finance for Indigenous Peoples, local communities and other stewards of the forests. A mechanism that, crucially, recognizing forests in their whole – not just as carbon stores, but as providers of water, food, livelihoods, culture and resilience.
UNEP’s upcoming report on forest co-benefits clearly shows how the tropical forests most at risk are also the most valuable to people. Protecting these forests keeps rivers clean and recycles rainfall. Provides income to 91 million people. Provides a haven for teeming biodiversity. And prevents US$187 billion dollars in disaster losses each year.
A simple, robust facility like the TFFF can deliver these values where they are needed most.
The TFFF is additive and generative. Different and unique. This facility can work in tandem with other mechanisms, such as jurisdictional REDD+ in a resilient and robust ecosystem of forest finance. An ecosystem that works with the private sector, national development banks, investors and Indigenous Peoples – the true forest custodians. Transparency and monitoring will be critical to attract and retain sovereign and private investors.
The challenge is significant. UNEP’s upcoming State of Finance for Forests report shows that protecting tropical forests requires about US$16 billion in investments every year till 2030. But the TFFF and jurisdictional REDD+ could cover more than half of the investment needed.
I thank and congratulate President Lula for leading on the proposal for this initiative. It is through such innovation that we can keep standing forests standing. That we can deliver for Indigenous Peoples and for local communities. And that we can deliver for the planet and people across the globe – even those who live far from the forests that give so much.
