The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) will be launched at the 30th United Nations Climate Conference (COP30), which will take place from November 10th to 21st in Belém, Brazil. This initiative claims to be a "new hope" for tropical forests worldwide. However, this is far from the case.
This article by Larry Lohmann (The Corner House) explains what the TFFF is and why it must be rejected:
1. The TFFF would be funded with profits derived partly from the destruction of tropical forests.
2. The money that the TFFF promises to tropical forest governments is small and extremely uncertain compared to the profits that Wall Street could make from the plan. On the whole, the scheme is designed to transfer wealth from South to North.
3. The TFFF would increase both the South’s financial debt to the North and the North’s ecological debt to the South.
4. The TFFF is designed in a way that distracts from the underlying causes of deforestation. The bond investment fund at its heart has been designed by Northern bankers who have little experience of tropical forests or their peoples.
5. The TFFF is based on a false theory of deforestation.
6. Any money that does reach tropical forest governments under the plan would be very unlikely to be passed on in significant amounts to forest communities themselves. Indeed, the TFFF could end up empowering repressive governments against forest communities.
Source: The Corner House