Dutch cabinet puts €450m into rainforest protection fund
The Dutch cabinet is putting $500m into the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, an initiative of Brazil. Under it, governments and indigenous peoples should be able to claim payments for keeping their forests intact. The exact arrangements are still being explored.
The Dutch cabinet is putting €450m ($500m) into the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), a fund to protect tropical rainforests around the world.
The fund is explicitly not a donation scheme. Contributions are invested, and the returns go towards protecting tropical forests. Governments and indigenous peoples should be able to claim payments for keeping their forests intact.
The TFFF is an initiative of Brazil, which hosted the UN climate summit last year. Brazil has set a goal of $25bn from governments and is seeking a further $100bn in investment from companies over time. With the Dutch pledge, the total promised stands at $7.84bn.
Development Cooperation Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma writes in a letter to parliament that an exploration (verkenning) of the exact arrangements is still under way. His spokesperson says the $500m is now politically committed and the ministry assumes the money can actually be made available.
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Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF)
The Tropical Forests Forever Facility is an international fund that makes payments to tropical forest countries for keeping their rainforests standing, rather than paying for individual projects. Governments contribute capital to it, and the payments are linked to the amount of forest a country conserves. Dutch contributions to it are part of the Netherlands' international climate and nature finance, and the fund is one of the ways the Dutch government supports forest protection abroad.