Scaling Tropical Forest Finance: Perspectives From the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin, and Borneo
The Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin, and Borneo hold approximately 78% of the world’s remaining tropical forests. They play a critical role in biodiversity conservation, ecosystem service provision, and hydrological cycles, yet they remain chronically underfinanced. By 2030, tropical forests will require USD 66.8 billion of additional funding for forest conservation (USD 15.8 billion), forest restoration (USD 33.2 billion), and agroforestry systems (USD 17.8 billion). However, current financing relies on declining aid budgets, and it is fragmented, to enable territorial-scale action. Emerging directions to address that gap in forest finance include strengthening landscape approaches; creating longer-term payment structures; and ensuring direct financing for Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, and Afrodescendant Peoples. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), launched at the Belém Climate Summit, part of the COP30 process, is projected to generate approximately USD 4 billion per year in payments to tropical forest countries. Specifically, it can meet over half of the forest protection sub-component of the finance gap by 2030 if combined with Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) jurisdictional programs. This represents a turning point toward scaling and integrating tropical forest finance.
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