Indigenous Tribes to Receive 20% of New “Tropical Forests Forever” Fund

A groundbreaking provision in Brazil’s new climate proposal ensures that Indigenous peoples will be direct beneficiaries of global conservation efforts. The “Tropical Forests Forever Facility,” which has already secured $5.5 billion in pledges, mandates that 20 percent of its funds be allocated to Indigenous communities.
This rule recognizes the millennia-long role of tribes in managing and preserving the very rainforests now seen as crucial to regulating the global climate. A large presence of Indigenous leaders from Brazil and surrounding countries is expected at the climate talks in Belem, where the fund was announced.
The proposal, championed by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, aims to pay 74 developing nations to halt deforestation. It uses a novel financing model of interest-bearing loans from wealthy countries and investors, rather than donations, to make preservation a financially viable choice.
The goal is to shift the economic balance, making it more profitable to protect trees than to destroy them for ranching or mining. The fund has received strong initial support, including a $3 billion pledge from Norway.
The focus on Indigenous-led conservation comes at a moment of high tension. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned of a “moral failure” if the 1.5-degree warming limit is surpassed, while the absence of leaders from the top three polluting nations (US, China, India) highlights deep global divisions.