Jakarta. Indonesia recently announced at the Belém climate summit that it would invest $1 billion in Brazil’s flagship fund that aims to safeguard the world’s forests, a promise that officially made Jakarta one of the initiative’s biggest donors. 

President Prabowo Subianto sent his younger brother, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, to COP30 environmental talks as his climate envoy. Speaking in front of world leaders, Hashim reconfirmed Indonesia’s commitment to backing the Brazil-led Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF). Prabowo initially made the promise when he hosted his Brazilian counterpart, Lula da Silva, in Jakarta about two weeks ago. This, however, marked the first time for Indonesia -- home to sizable tropical forests -- to mention the sum of its TFFF investments explicitly.

“Indonesia will actively participate in it [TFFF], and has committed to match Brazil’s contribution of $1 billion,” Hashim told the live-broadcasted conference on Thursday local time, a statement that drew some applause in the room.

Hashim then boasted how Indonesia’s average annual deforestation rate had fallen to its lowest level in two decades. “It represents a 75 percent reduction since 2019,” he explained.

Both Indonesia and Brazil are the second-largest contributors to the TFFF to date. A COP30 press statement showed that Norway had committed $3 billion over the next ten years, subject to what they called “specific conditions”. France, too, had made a conditional pledge of 500 million euros (around $576.7 million) until 2030. The Netherlands had promised up to $5 million for the secretariat, while Portugal vowed to inject $1 million into the freshly launched fund. Germany endorses the idea, but wants to discuss its financial commitment with Brazil first.

The TFFF aims to amass $125 billion in funding, about $25 billion of which is set to be sponsor capital from sovereign sources. The fund seeks to collect the remaining $100 billion from private investors. It will make annual payments to tropical forest countries that maintain their standing forests. The World Bank has agreed to become the trustee, putting it in charge of disbursing the money. The fund will not determine how the countries will use the funds awarded to them.

Lula had called the TFFF one of the main tangible outcomes of COP30.

“In just a few years, we will begin to see the fruits of this fund,” he said on the TFFF launch.

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