Brasil holds meeting on international funding for tropical forest conservation

The event, led by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, brought together the President of COP30 and its Executive Director, the UK Government and representatives from the United Nations, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and civil society.

On Monday (April 7), the federal government held a meeting to discuss financial cooperation mechanisms between countries for the conservation and preservation of tropical forests.

Held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima/MMA) in Brasília (DF), the meeting was attended by COP30 President, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago; the MMA’s National Secretary for Climate Change and COP30 CEO, Ana Toni; and the UK’s Special Representative for Nature, Ruth Davis. The debate was led by André Aquino, head of the MMA’s Economic and Environmental Advisory Office. The director general of the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB), Garo Batmanian, participated remotely. Representatives from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministério de Relações Exteriores/MRE), the UN and civil society were also present.

The aim of the event was to gather and consolidate studies on bilateral financing mechanisms for tropical forests, identify the main players and sources of data on the subject and collect information for an updated report on the subject, which is expected to be presented by COP30, to support the formulation of climate policies in the countries.

At the opening of the meeting, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago highlighted the effort to align the multilateral processes led by Brasil in this and recent years – the Amazon Summit, G20, BRICS and COP30 – with the conservation of tropical forests.

“We are concentrating our efforts so that, at COP30, we can achieve significant results, making it clear which types of financial structures are appropriate for different contexts in the forests,” he said.

Ana Toni emphasized that the three objectives of forest funding – to conserve, reduce deforestation and restore – will guide the choice of instruments compatible with the needs of each country. “There are several new sources of funding for forests and it would be important for us to know and understand each of them,” she said.

“We need to work together, as a community, to make funding mechanisms reliable, robust, solid and equitable,” said Ruth Davies.

"We want to significantly scale up direct transfer programs to communities because we believe this is the type of policy that should be increasingly implemented. COP30 is a valuable opportunity in this regard, and we need to engage in a deeper discussion about its role and potential impact," said André Aquino.

Conserving and restoring forests is key to achieving the global goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This will require an annual investment of USD 423-542 billion by 2030 from international, national, and private sources.

Efforts should focus on the maintenance of standing forests, with support from carbon markets, multilateral banks and innovative mechanisms such as the Tropical Forests Forever Fund (TFFF), developed by the Ministries of Environment and Climate Change (Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima), Foreign Affairs and Finance (Relações Exteriores e Fazenda), and one of the climate finance agendas of the Brazilian Presidency at COP30.

"(The TFFF) is a long-term investment fund. It pays according to the hectares conserved or restored. Instead of having a global system that monitors everyone, we will reward the good work that countries already do," Garo Batmanian explained at the meeting.

In addition, countries can redirect their financing structures to redirect subsidies that favor deforestation, and the private sector must invest in restoration and adopt deforestation-free production chains.

COP

The Climate Conference of the Parties (COP) is currently the major global meeting dedicated to discussions and negotiations on climate change. Held annually, it gathers 198 countries — known as “Parties” — that are part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to assess the progress of climate action and make decisions to promote compliance with the commitments made in the international agreement.

The COP presidency is divided each year among countries from five regions recognized by the UN: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, and Western Europe.

In 2025, Brasil will host the 30th edition of the Conference (COP30), in Belém (PA). Among the key themes are climate finance, adaptation to the impacts of climate change, and the promotion of a just transition based on sustainable development and social inclusion.

English version: Trad. Bárbara Menezes

Proofreading by Enrique Villamil