Despite pledges and commitments made at recent Climate Conferences of the Parties (COPs), funding for the conservation of tropical rainforests is coming under threat.  Major international donors are tightening their belts. The US has abandoned all commitments, and the UK has scaled back or redirected various rainforest aid pledges, raising major concerns among environmentalists regarding the future of the Amazon, Indonesia, and the Congo Basin.  

Tropical forest commitments have evolved from standard declarations to highly funded, mechanism-driven initiatives. The most significant of these is the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a multibillion-dollar conservation trust designed to reward countries for maintaining standing forests.

The most vital commitments and pledges established at the COP climate summits include:

• Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF): Initiated by Brazil and hosted by the World Bank, this facility incentivizes countries to keep their tropical forests intact. By the end of COP30, the TFFF secured over USD 6.6 billion in initial pledges, including $3 billion from Norway, $1 billion from Germany, and $1 billion from Brazil. The fund eventually aims to mobilize $125 billion through blended finance. 

• Indigenous and Land Tenure Pledges: At COP30, over USD 1.8 billion was pledged for the Intergovernmental Land Tenure Commitment to secure the land and forest rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. At least 20% of TFFF payments are directly earmarked for these guardians of the forests. 

• Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use: During COP26, over 140 countries committed to halting and reversing forest loss and land degradation by 2030, a goal heavily integrated into subsequent outcomes.

The United States has heavily cut back on its commitments to protect global tropical rainforests following the transition to the Trump administration in early 2025. While the previous administration made significant funding pledges, current U.S. policy has pivoted sharply away from international climate and conservation financing.  The USA declined to make any funding pledge to the TFFF.  

Previous US administration pledges to inject $500 million into Brazil's Amazon Fund have been stalled, halted, or entirely abandoned under current U.S. budgetary prioritizations. The Trump administration also enacted sweeping budget cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).  These cuts directly defunded active, boots-on-the-ground tropical conservation projects, such as indigenous forest surveillance networks in Peru, illegal logging patrols in Cambodia, and biodiversity initiatives in Madagascar

UK's Labour Government is walking away from commitments made at COP26 in Glasgow to provide funding for the protection of tropical forests with cuts of up to 80% for funding for the Congo Basin Action Fund.  The UK’s Darwin Initiative—one of its longest-running global biodiversity programs—is facing massive reductions that will strip funding eligibility from nearly 90 countries across Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America.

Following successive aid cuts introduced by UK Conservative and Labour governments – tracking a global trend – the UK’s Congo funding is under threat.  The Congo basin forest action programme (CBFA) was explicitly set up to provide “roughly half” of the UK’s £200m Congo pledge.  Now, after reporting delays, the UK has slashed the CBFA as part of the Labour government’s aid cuts. Its £90m budget has been “quietly reduced by 79% to £18.8m”, according to the UK Times newspaper.

This is not the only Congo project that has been dropped due to aid cuts. The Congo part of the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund – worth at least £12.3m – has closed five years early.

The primary initiative in this region is the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI). It is a partnership between six Central African nations and international donors. Its goal is to stop deforestation, fight poverty, and protect the Congo Basin rainforest, which is the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world.  CAFI manages over US $900 million in funds. These funds pay for projects that help local farmers, create land-use plans, and improve local communities.

The effects of recent cutbacks in the financial flows  can be viewed at this link: https://mptf.undp.org/fund/afi00

The abandonment of funding commitments leaves it to other donors, such as the EU, Switzerland, New Zealand  and Norway to make up this shortfall.  The funding for the protection of tropical rainforests is a critical and integral component of global climate finance pledges. Developed country parties must fulfil their climate finance pledges to prevent catastrophic economic damage and systemic financial collapse as global warming breaches safe scientific limits. When temperatures surpass critical thresholds, the cost of climate impacts scales exponentially. Failing to provide this funding forces developing nations into high-interest debt spirals, triggers massive global supply chain shocks, and creates severe geopolitical instability that directly harms wealthy economies.