Cabinet wants up to $500m for tropical forest fund
The Dutch cabinet wants to commit up to $500m over ten years to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, a new fund meant to pay countries for keeping their forests standing, minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma announced.
The cabinet wants to set aside up to $500m over ten years for the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a new endowment fund aimed at long-term forest conservation. Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, announced the plan on Monday. The fund is estimated to be able to protect 800 to 900 million hectares of tropical forest, about 200 times the area of the Netherlands.
The TFFF aims to build a permanent fund of $125bn, with $100bn coming from the private sector. Dutch institutional investors have already shown interest.
Net returns from the fund would reward countries for keeping their forests, once satellite data confirms it. The indicative payment is about $4 per hectare a year. Part of this goes directly to indigenous peoples and local communities.
The Netherlands joins a coalition of countries including Brazil, Norway, Indonesia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, all of which have announced they will invest too. The World Bank plays a central role in developing the TFFF.
Climate change is a direct threat to our security, prosperity and freedoms.Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation
Sjoerdsma said the contribution gives countries a strong, predictable incentive to protect and preserve their tropical forests.
For now the planned contribution is subject to conditions, as set out in a letter on stepping up international climate policy that Sjoerdsma sent to the Tweede Kamer. The process is expected to finish around mid-2027, after which the TFFF can definitively start.
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Tweede Kamer
The House of Representatives, the lower and more powerful house of the Dutch parliament. Its 150 members are elected directly; it can amend bills and holds the cabinet to account.
Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF)
The Tropical Forest Forever Facility is an international endowment fund that aims to pay tropical forest countries for keeping their rainforests standing over the long term. The fund is invested, and its returns are meant to fund ongoing payments to countries that protect their forests. In the Netherlands, the government funds it as a contribution to global forest conservation through its development cooperation budget.