It’s crunch time for the Forest COP - will we let them burn?
We must sustain the momentum on forest finance and a roadmap to secure their future at COP30.
By Irene Vélez-Torres
There was a time that if you had told me that a climate COP would be known as the Forest COP I would have deemed it implausible. Despite holding the key to almost a third of climate solutions, nature was so often sidelined and surpassed. Yet here we are, on the precipice of seeing a roadmap to end deforestation front and centre in the outcome here in Belém. Our own relationship with forests in Colombia has seen both progress and setbacks. We’ve announced new protections for our Indigenous communities who act as the stewards of our forests. We’ve celebrated record lows of deforestation, but keeping them there is hard, and requires more international support. Now, we want to show the world where we stand with our historic commitment to the Amazon. The first no-go zone, a ban on all new oil and mining projects. As we enter the remaining few days of negotiations, I’m looking beyond the borders of Colombia, beyond the vastness of the Amazon, a call to countries rich in both natural resources and wealth. A reminder that the forests that we’re fighting to protect are vital to us all; the lungs of our earth, critical to global trade, stabilising food systems and climate impacts.
We’ve already achieved something quite remarkable here in Belém for forests. Until now, finance was fragmented and inconsistent. We didn’t have a proposition that truly gave the forests a living value that could start to rival the lands worth destroyed. The launch of a new tropical forest fund - the TFFF - with $5.5 billion in investment so far and set to rise in the coming months, stands to be the legacy of this COP. To those countries that have not yet invested I would say, this is the centre of gravity on forest finance now. If you don’t have a seat at the table, one day you will look your grandchildren in the eye and explain why you stood by and let our forests burn.
As the dust has settled on the TFFF announcement, it’s become clear that whilst finance is a crucial element of protecting this vast public good, and the heart and soul of many Indigenous communities, finance alone cannot solve this problem. Deforestation globally is 63% higher than it needs to be to meet global targets to end deforestation by 2030. Our industrial food and trade systems, extractive industries and financial architecture are all chewing up the land and spitting it out, leaving landscapes once rich in life silent. The more trees are cleared, the more the fires have burnt.
We know ending deforestation is a complicated web, and one that can’t be done by just blindly marching forward without a clear sense of direction. President Lula set out a vision for real accountability on forests at the start of this COP. He called for roadmaps on forests and fossil fuels. He called for a plan to get us back on track. In the final hours of this ‘Forest COP’, there is no time to waste. We must unite behind his and Minister Marina Silva’s vision. In a time where trade tensions dominate the media and environmental actions feel under threat from some corners of the globe, we must lean in and be smarter, stronger and clearer than ever about how to reach our shared goals. We set the destination - committing to end deforestation by 2030 - now we must deliver on it.
Deforestation isn’t just a tropical forest country problem. As forests are destroyed, rainfall cycles wither and droughts worsen. We’re already feeling the food price impact of tense trade and crops failing under climate disasters. Reforesting the lands and bringing trees into our food system is a lifeline we must cling to. In Europe, deforestation in the Congo is set to add USD $33 billion per year in additional costs for cocoa imports by 2050 - that’s nine times what the EU is currently paying. As the soy sector in Brazil cannibalises itself by deforesting land to plant more soy, the Cerrado region’s economy is set to crumble, and China and Germany are likely to foot a bill in the billions of dollars on imports. We need to see the global north come behind a roadmap, and quickly.
The relevance of international forest-financing mechanisms is particularly significant for Colombia, a country that holds one of the world’s largest expanses of tropical forest and has achieved sustained, verifiable reductions in deforestation in recent years. These results demonstrate that when the State, local communities, and territorial institutions work in concert, forest conservation becomes a durable public policy. Yet maintaining this trajectory requires stable, predictable, and rights-based financing, support that strengthens territorial action and recognizes forests as living systems, not financial assets.
Colombia has consistently warned of a global risk: the growing trend of treating natural resources as commodities. When forests are reduced to carbon units or tradable products, their intrinsic value is diminished, and communities risk losing control over territories they have safeguarded for generations. Any financing mechanism must therefore avoid creating new dependencies or privatizing collective benefits.
Within this broader landscape, the TFFF represents a key opportunity to advance justice-based financing. It supports tropical forest countries without imposing debt, conditionalities, or market pressures. For Colombia, it also opens the door to deeper South–South cooperation with the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia.
The political message is clear: nations that sustain the planet’s climate balance must have both the right—and the means—to shape how the protection of their forests is financed and governed. Make no mistake, if we continue to let our forests burn, so will your economies and our chances of keeping the Paris Agreement alive.
Irene Vélez-Torres is Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia