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The Forever Tropical Forests Fund, launched during COP30 in Belém with the goal of raising US$10 billion by the end of 2026, has not yet managed to attract new investors beyond the five countries that announced contributions at the event: Brazil, Norway, Indonesia, France, and Germany. The just over US$6.5 billion raised represents the only capital confirmed so far.
The fund for tropical forests created during COP30 in Belém, in November 2025, was born with an ambition that impressed the international community: to raise US$10 billion by the end of 2026 to remunerate countries that kept their forests standing. Five months later, the Forever Tropical Forests Fund, known by the acronym TFFF, is taking its first steps in structuring and has not yet received any contributions beyond the just over US$6.5 billion announced by the five founding countries during the event in Belém.
The list of investors remains exactly the same since November: Brazil with US$1 billion, Indonesia with US$1 billion, Norway with US$3 billion, France with 500 million euros, and Germany with 1 billion euros. No other country has publicly announced its intention to contribute resources to the fund, which calls into question the viability of the US$10 billion goal within the established timeframe. For those who followed the enthusiasm of COP30, the contrast between the ambition of the launch and the reality of fundraising is difficult to ignore.
What is the Forever Tropical Forests Fund and how does it work?
According to information released by the portal platobr, the TFFF was conceived as a financial mechanism to remunerate countries that possess tropical forests and commit to preserving them. The logic is to transform the maintenance of standing forests into a financial asset, offering economic returns to nations that would otherwise have an incentive to deforest and use the land for agriculture or livestock. The fund invests the raised resources in the financial market and distributes the returns among the participating countries.
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The model was presented at COP30 as one of the main achievements of the climate conference hosted by Belém. The idea that intact forests generate measurable and remunerable economic value attracted global attention, but translating this interest into concrete financial commitments has been much slower than the organizers expected. The fund’s structure is still being set up, with technical meetings conducted at the World Bank, which serves as the provisional headquarters of the TFFF.
What was decided at the last meeting at the World Bank
On Thursday (16), Minister Dario Durigan, from the Ministry of Finance, participated in a meeting in Washington to discuss the operationalization of the fund. The meeting, jointly led by representatives from Brazil and Norway, resulted in the creation of the Tropical Forest Investment Fund, acronym TFIF, which will be the arm responsible for the financial applications of the contributed resources.
A transition committee was formed, co-chaired by Brazil and Norway, with the participation of France, Germany, and Indonesia. In the coming weeks, the committee will determine the jurisdiction where the TFIF will be legally constituted, a decision that paves the way for the creation of the entity’s permanent infrastructure. Once the investment fund is formally registered, a board of directors composed of international finance and asset management experts will be appointed.
Why no other country has joined the fund since COP30
The absence of new investors in the five months following COP30 raises questions about the obstacles preventing other countries from joining. The world’s largest economies, including the United States, China, Japan, and the United Kingdom, have not announced any financial commitment to the TFFF, despite having participated in the climate negotiations in Belém and publicly recognizing the importance of tropical forests for global climate regulation.
The reasons are multiple. Geopolitical tensions, domestic budgetary priorities, and skepticism about the governance of the fund may be weighing on the decision of potential investors. For some governments, committing billions of dollars to a mechanism that still lacks a definitive legal structure represents a political and financial risk difficult to justify before their parliaments. The organizers expect that the formalization of the TFIF in the coming weeks will help unlock new adhesions by demonstrating that the fund is getting off the ground.
The gap between US$ 6.5 billion and the US$ 10 billion target
The difference of approximately US$ 3.5 billion between the amount raised and the target may seem manageable in absolute terms, but the challenge lies in the timeframe. The TFFF needs to attract this additional volume by the end of 2026, which means mobilizing new investors in less than eight months, starting now. For comparison, the five founding countries took months of prior diplomatic negotiation to reach the commitments announced at COP30.
The time pressure adds urgency to the need to formalize the fund‘s structure and present concrete results that convince hesitant governments. If the target is not met, the risk is that the TFFF will lose credibility precisely when it needs to gain traction, compromising not only financial fundraising but also the narrative that COP30 in Belém produced transformative results for the protection of tropical forests.
What’s at stake for tropical forests if the fund doesn’t take off
The TFFF is not the only financing mechanism for forest conservation, but it is the most ambitious ever created at a UN climate conference. If the fund does not reach its target and fails to operate at scale, the message to tropical forest-holding countries will be that the international community recognizes the value of forests but is unwilling to pay for their preservation. This contradiction could weaken the economic argument against deforestation in nations facing internal pressure for development.
For Brazil, which hosted COP30 and is the largest holder of tropical forests on the planet, the success of the TFFF carries symbolic and practical weight. The country contributed US$ 1 billion and co-chairs the transition committee, which places it in the position of the main articulator for raising new resources. The diplomatic challenge in the coming months will be to convince economic powers that investing in the fund is not environmental charity, but a climate strategy with measurable returns for the planet.
Do you think rich countries will fulfill their promise to finance the preservation of tropical forests, or will the COP30 fund remain just good intentions? Leave your opinion in the comments; we want to know if you believe forest protection can work as a business.
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