Posted on September, 23 2025

NEW YORK (23 September 2025): WWF applauds the Government of Brazil’s US$1 billion investment in the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), announced today.  

Brazil’s anchor investment signals a paradigm shift for nature and climate finance by widening the investor base to include governments that historically have been aid recipients alongside investors from traditional donor countries and private investors. It is a critical step toward mobilizing large-scale forest finance alongside traditional grant-based assistance. WWF urges other governments to follow suit by investing in this high-impact initiative. 

The world is dangerously off track to meet the goal set by over 140 world leaders to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. In 2024 alone, the tropics lost 6.7 million hectares of primary forest. Inadequate finance is one of the biggest barriers to progress.  

The TFFF can offer an innovative solution – delivering financial returns for investors while generating long-term dividends for tropical forest countries that are addressing deforestation and safeguarding their forests. Crucially, it includes pathways for Indigenous Peoples and local communities to access and direct, at a minimum, 20% of payments to tropical forest countries. It’s a win-win model that blends ambition on climate and nature with market-based solutions.  

We recognize that the TFFF alone cannot close the forest finance gap or fully offset the opportunity costs of converting forests to agriculture, mining, or other uses. Nor should investments in the TFFF come at the expense of other nature and climate commitments. But in a year where climate and nature finance breakthroughs are urgently needed, the TFFF stands out as our best shot – a cost-effective, scalable mechanism to address nature loss and the climate crisis. If successful, it can serve as a blueprint for innovative financing in other environment-related areas.  

We urgently call on governments to join Brazil by making long-term loans or guarantees as sovereign sponsors ahead of the UN climate COP30. Our natural world is in crisis. The TFFF is an important opportunity to turn the tide, and we cannot afford to miss it.

Kirsten Schuijt, Director General, WWF International  

Mauricio Voivodic, Executive Director & CEO, WWF-Brazil 

Tanya Steele, CEO, WWF-UK 

Karoline Andaur, CEO, WWF-Norway 

Heike Vesper, Chief Executive, Transformation & Policies, WWF-Germany 

ENDS

Contact: news@wwfint.org