African civil society organisations have rejected the newly launched $125bn Tropical Forest Forever Facility, TFFF at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, calling it a dangerous attempt to financialise tropical forests rather than protect them.
The Africa Make Big Polluters Pay, MBPP Coalition, which includes CAPPA, Gender CC Southern Africa, the Global Forest Coalition (GFC) and over 30 others, said the facility offers no real climate support and instead places forests under the control of powerful investors.
The coalition said the TFFF, promoted by Brazil as a blended-finance fund for forest protection, reduces ecosystems to tradable assets and undermines community-led conservation.
“The excitement around the TFFF is misplaced,” the group stated. “Rather than safeguarding forests, it commodifies them and erodes the climate-justice principles it claims to uphold.”
They warned that Africa’s biodiverse forests and vulnerable communities are most at risk, with the scheme creating deeper financial dependency and weakening national sovereignty over forest resources.
Countries such as Nigeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda are being drawn into a system that prioritises investor returns over community needs.
The group criticised the proposal to pay countries about US$4 per hectare annually as “tokenistic” and said the fund’s structure resembles a profit-driven investment vehicle, with investors paid before countries.
They added that real climate financing could easily come from redirecting just 1% of global military spending, which would raise six times more than the TFFF without exposing nations to financial risk.
The coalition also faulted the appointment of the World Bank as trustee, warning that its oversight would centralise control, delay access, and silence frontline communities.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of CAPPA, said: “The World Bank must not be allowed to turn forest protection into another business model.”
Mokoena Ndivile of Gender CC Southern Africa added that the facility threatens women and indigenous communities who rely on forests for survival.
Kwami Kpondzo of the Global Forest Coalition warned that the scheme sidelines local knowledge and entrenches corporate power.
The MBPP urged global leaders to reject the TFFF and support transparent, community-driven climate finance systems that strengthen, not undermine local stewardship.