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Driving
the Day
The
next two days at COP 30 focus on forests, oceans,
biodiversity, and the local communities and
Indigenous Peoples who steward them, under
Axis 2 of
the Global Climate Action Agenda.
One
benefit of the renewed Global Climate Action
Agenda structure is that participants are
increasingly reporting against shared, collective
metrics. That means assessing the number of
hectares protected and restored, dollars invested,
and people directly impacted – in addition to
emissions reduced or avoided.
What
matters more than the hectares or the dollars,
though, is who's at the centre of this.
Consider
the scale of the numbers being announced across
the Action Agenda: For example, 20
million smallholder families
restoring degraded lands, 12
million farmers
shifting to regenerative practices across 110
countries, and 1,000
Indigenous communities
in the Peruvian Amazon stewarding 7.5
million hectares.
There are also the women safeguarding coastal
fisheries, the fire practitioners blending
traditional and scientific knowledge, and the
communities restoring mangroves and river systems.
Additionally,
under this week's land tenure announcements,
160
million hectares
of Indigenous lands globally are being recognized,
with USD
1.8 billion
committed specifically to secure those
rights.
Indigenous
Peoples manage or hold tenure over at
least 36% of
the world's remaining intact forests.
Yet as Fany
Kiuru, COP 30 Impact Maker
and General Coordinator of the Coordinating Body
of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin
(COICA), points out: "Indigenous territories cover
80% of the world's biodiversity hotspots, yet we
often struggle for the right to protect them. When
our rights are overlooked, so is our role in
safeguarding ecosystems that are essential not
only for Indigenous communities but for the entire
planet. This misunderstanding limits our ability
to implement traditional conservation methods that
have proven effective for generations."
This
week's outcomes begin to address that gap. Here
are some of the biggest announcements driving the
numbers:
Governments
Unite to Establish Forest Economy – Anchored by
USD 5.5 Billion For Tropical Forests Forever
Facility (TFFF)
What's
emerging at COP30 isn't just more money for
forests – it's the actual financial architecture
to get that money flowing to the countries,
jurisdictions, and communities protecting
them.
The
Tropical
Forest Forever Facility (TFFF)
is already being backed by strong endorsement and
plans for delivery. So far, 53
countries,
including 34 tropical forest countries, have
endorsed the Facility which has a long-term goal
of USD
125 billion.
And in a major shift, at
least 20% of all the fund’s payments
will flow directly to Indigenous Peoples and local
communities.
Landing
at COP30, is the TFFF
Country Access Platform,
created to help forest countries meet eligibility
requirements and access funds. The
United Nations Development Programme and
Systemiq
will independently manage the Platform, which will
connect countries with technical partners, provide
hands-on knowledge support, and facilitate
South–South collaboration.
Today
also brought the launch of the Scaling
J-REDD+ Coalition
to channel finance to forest protection at scale.
Instead of funding individual projects, this
approach pays entire states, provinces, or
countries for measurable reductions in
deforestation – creating stable, long-term
incentives to keep forests standing.
The
Coalition includes tropical forest countries
(Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Kenya),
donor nations (Norway, Singapore, UK), Indigenous
groups (Grupo Indigena Perú), and major carbon
market organizations (ART, Emergent, South Pole,
Verra) and other civil society organizations.
These
initiatives are in direct support of the Forest
Finance Roadmap
which has been endorsed by 36 governments
representing 45% of the world’s forest cover and
65% of global GDP. The roadmap aims to close the
USD
66.8 billion annual funding gap
for tropical forest protection and restoration. It
was released under the Forest & Climate
Leaders' Partnership in collaboration with the
Government of Brazil.
Why
this matters:
"Halting
and reversing deforestation is fundamental to
achieving global climate goals. For too long, the
immense value of standing tropical forests has
been absent from the world's balance sheet,” said
COP 30 Climate High-Level Champion Dan
Ioschpe.
For
communities that have historically carried the
burden of forest conservation without adequate
resources or recognition, these initiatives signal
a tangible shift: climate finance is increasingly
aligning with the people who are actually managing
and protecting the planet’s most critical
ecosystems.
Global
Leaders Back Indigenous Land Rights With 160
Million Hectares and USD 1.8 Billion
Boost
As
of today, fifteen governments will have endorsed
the new Intergovernmental Land Tenure Commitment
(ILTC), which establishes a goal to advance the
ownership and protection of 160
million hectares
of lands belonging to Indigenous Peoples,
traditional communities, and Afro-descendant
groups. Commitments announced included 50 million
hectares in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
and 16 million in Colombia, along with 63 million
hectares in Brazil.
That
includes plans in Brazil to secure 51 million
hectares of already-demarcated Indigenous
territories by removing land invaders and
implementing territorial management plans. It will
also advance land regularisation for another 8
million hectares – 3 million through allocating
public lands to Indigenous peoples and 5 million
through demarcating 54 new Indigenous territories.
In addition, 4 million hectares will be designated
for Afro-descendant communities, supporting the
sustainable development and territorial
strengthening of about 300 Quilombola territories
over the next five years.
Complementing
these efforts, 35
philanthropies and national governments
recently pledged USD
1.8 billion to
expand community-based conservation through
strengthening legal tenure for Indigenous
Peoples.
Where
forest finance has long bypassed Indigenous
Communities, today’s commitments acknowledge their
role in managing much of the world’s intact
tropical forests. For example, from the
territories of the Brazilian
Amazon,
where deforestation rates inside recognized
Indigenous lands are dramatically lower
than in surrounding areas, to Colombia,
Peru and Indonesia,
where titled community lands consistently show
higher carbon storage and lower forest
loss.
Why
this matters:
By
acknowledging this stewardship, governments and
funders signal that secure land tenure is
essential for unlocking climate and nature
finance, and for enforcing safeguards against
land-grabs, illegal logging, and ecosystem
degradation.
USD
9 Billion for Regenerative Landscapes: A New Model
for Farming and Land Restoration
The
COP Action
Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes (AARL) announced
a surge in investments to advance production,
conservation, and restoration across agrifood
systems. More than 40 organizations reported
over
USD 9
billion
in committed investment,
covering more
than 210 million hectares of land
and reaching 12
million farmers
across 90+ agricultural and food commodities in
110+ countries by 2030. Investment has increased
more than fourfold from USD 2.2 billion in
2023.
AARL
– launched by the COP 28 Presidency of the UAE,
the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD), and Boston Consulting Group
(BCG) – brings together more than 40 organizations
including commodity traders, consumer goods
companies, retailers, agtech providers, financial
institutions, and other non-state actor partners.
Together they are backing regenerative agriculture
approaches that restore degraded land while
keeping farmers profitable.
The
progress is visible on the ground. In Brazil, the
Landscape
Accelerator Brazil (LAB)
– a private-sector led multistakeholder initiative
under the global AARL initiative – launched in
2025 in partnership with Brazil's Ministry of
Agriculture. It is focused on the Cerrado biome
and Pará state in the Amazon. Research from the
LAB shows that restoring pastures and advancing
regenerative practices across 50+ million hectares
represents a USD
93 billion investment opportunity
with an average 19% internal rate of return for
610,000 farmers. The LAB aims to mobilize USD 5
billion by 2030 through a co-investment
platform.
Why
this matters:
For
decades, farmers and communities have been the
first to feel the pressure of climate change:
degraded soils, unpredictable rainfall, shrinking
harvests. They’ve adapted, often innovated, but
without the investment and enabling policies
needed to match the scale of the global challenge.
The USD 9 billion committed through AARL changes
that
dynamic. | 
