Tropical Forest Forever Facility
Five key recommendations for better forest finance
Rainforest Foundation Norway welcomes the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) as a promising mechanism to scale up critical forest finance from public and private sectors. Here is how we can make it work.
WATERFALL: Air Terjun Tiu Kelep waterfall in the rainforest on the Indonesian island of Lombok. Photo: Shutterstock
The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) is an innovative initiative to reward tropical forest countries for conserving their tropical forests. Based on public loans and private investments, the initiative has the potential to raise significant additional funding on a long-term basis, both from public and private resources.
Through this facility, eligible tropical forest countries would receive annual forest payments for every hectare of rainforest they conserve (of up to 4 USD per hectare), minus a penalty depending on their deforestation and degradation rates.
These payments from the TFFF to Tropical Forest Countries (TFCs) have the potential to provide long-term incentives to conserve tropical forests, including high integrity forests and areas with low deforestation.
As such, the TFFF complements finance received from REDD+ payments and carbon markets. Together, they can provide a significant incentive towards ending deforestation and degradation.
The TFFF Secretariat is now receiving public comments on their latest Concept Note, as there are still a number of key design issues under consideration. To ensure its effectiveness, legitimacy, and positive impact, we’ve shared five key recommendations with the TFFF Secretariat:
- Robust Monitoring of Forest Degradation: It is key that the measurement of degradation is based on more indicators than just forest fires. Indicators such as changes to canopy cover, logging, or road development must be incorporated as well.
- Introduce Social and Environmental Safeguards: The forest conservation activities implemented by forest countries must uphold internationally recognized human rights and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples as well as Local Communities (IPs & LCs).
- Provide Direct Support to IPs & LCs: Provide 20% of funds for IP & LCs as a minimum, ensuring that this funding is clearly aligned with the self-determined priorities of IPs & LCs, and channelled through their chosen organizations.
- Responsible Green Investment Strategy: Recommend an ESG-focused due diligence process to avoid funding projects linked to deforestation or human rights violations.
- Effective Grievance Mechanism: Call for a transparent and rights-compatible process to ensure accountability in both TFFF’s payments to forest countries, as well as of its investment fund (TFIF).
By integrating these principles, TFFF can become a transformational initiative for forests, people, and climate.
Contacts:
Julia Naime
Senior International Forest Finance Adviser, Policy
julia.n@rainforest.no
Torbjørn Gjefsen
Senior International Forest Finance Adviser, Policy
(+47) 970 16 842
torbjorn@rainforest.no