Countries in the Africa Make Big Polluters Pay (MBPP) Coalition at the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, have rejected the newly launched $125 billion Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), floated by Brazil.
The coalition rejected the facility on the grounds that it threatens Africa's forest sovereignty and diverts climate finance away from vulnerable communities.
The position of the coalition was made known In a statement issued on Monday, by the over 32 member organisations including Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA).
According to the statement, CAPPA, and other members of the coalition, including Global Forest Coalition (GFC), and Gender CC Southern Africa -- described the TFFF as a "dangerous and misleading" attempt to financialise nature under the guise of conservation.
Launched by Brazil, the TFFF is promoted as a blended-finance fund that will provide annual payments to countries for protecting their forests. But the Africa MBPP said the scheme reduces forests to "tradable assets" controlled by powerful financial institutions that will perpetuate extractive systems responsible for deforestation and inequality.
"The excitement that has trailed the launch of the TFFF is misplaced," the coalition said. "Rather than safeguarding forests, it commodifies living ecosystems, undermines Indigenous and community-led stewardship, and erodes the principles of climate justice it claims to uphold," the statement noted.
The group warned that the fund poses grave risks to Africa's biodiverse forests, arguing that it would tighten financial dependence and erode national sovereignty over forest resources. Countries including Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, and several others are being drawn into a system that "places investor returns above community needs," the coalition added.
The facility's proposed annual payment of $4 per hectare of standing forest is "tokenistic" and fails to reflect the ecological and cultural value of tropical forests or the cost of community-led protection efforts, the statement explained.
The coalition also condemned the financing structure of the TFFF, saying it prioritises investor returns before payments reach countries, effectively functioning like a profit-driven financial vehicle rather than a climate solution. It argued that tying forest payments to investment portfolio performance amounts to the "privatisation of forest finance rooted in speculation, not sustainability."
Comparing global spending priorities, the coalition noted that redirecting just 1% of the annual $2.7 trillion global military budget could easily mobilise more climate funds than the TFFF promises.
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The involvement of the World Bank as the facility's trustee also drew heavy criticism. The coalition accused the Bank of perpetuating delays, centralising power, and marginalising frontline communities in past climate finance schemes.
"Accountability in climate finance starts with rejecting corporate capture," said Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of CAPPA. "The World Bank must not be allowed to turn forest protection into another business model."
Mokoena Ndivile of Gender CC Southern Africa warned that World Bank control over the fund could undermine women's rights and community resilience, while GFC's Kwami Kpondzo cautioned that Indigenous knowledge could be sidelined in favour of corporate interests.
The coalition concluded that the TFFF's governance structure serves financiers rather than forest-dependent peoples and offers "no path to justice, only an illusion of progress."
It urged global leaders at COP30 to reject the facility and instead support transparent, community-led climate finance models that protect sovereignty, uphold environmental justice, and strengthen frontline communities.