November 17, 2025
Belém, Brazil — 17 November 2025.
As global negotiators at COP30 intensify discussions on closing the nature-finance gap, a central message is resonating throughout the conversations held: without strong territorial governance, Indigenous leadership, and long-term financial mechanisms, global pledges will not translate into real reductions in deforestation. Responding to this urgent challenge, Conservation International (CI) and the Institut de la Finance Durable (IFD) co-hosted a high-level side-event at the French Pavilion to highlight practical solutions capable of directing finance to the places where forest protection is happening every day.
The event, Finance for Forests: From Paris to the Amazon Bridging Local Mechanisms and Global Finance Strategies, gathered government representatives from France, financial institutions including AXA and Crédit Agricole, Indigenous leaders from Ecuador’s Pakkiru community, and IFD´s and CI’s team. Speakers emphasized that protecting the Amazon home to more than 40 million people and a critical climate regulator requires channeling finance to High-Forest, Low-Deforestation (HFLD) regions through durable, transparent, and inclusive mechanisms. France reaffirmed its support to these efforts through the support of the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial, Energy and Digital Sovereigntyand the French Facility for the Global Environment (FFEM), highlighting that the Vital Reserves Project is expected to help protect 4.6 million hectares and secure 235 million tons of irrecoverable carbon. Financial institutions emphasized the importance of setting sector policies within their business lines, and the key role of client engagement across the value chains of commodities impacting deforestation
Panelists presented a set of complementary solutions: governance systems that enable Indigenous Peoples to access and manage funds directly; long-term financial instruments such as community-led funds, municipal trust funds, and biodiversity credits, including the pilot underway in Yaguas National Park; updated safeguards and community protocols that strengthen accountability; and alignment with emerging global mechanisms such as debt-for-nature conversions and the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF). Speakers underscored that closing the finance gap is not only about mobilizing capital, but about ensuring the enabling conditions, legal foundations, institutional capacities, transparent methodologies, and cultural considerations are firmly in place across territories.
CI and IFD highlighted how their collaboration bridges global and local approaches. CI’s Vital Reserves Project, implemented across Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, and Peru, is testing scalable models such as Indigenous sub-accounts, subnational trust funds, and Sustainable Options Assessments that identify territorial finance pathways. IFD, representing the Paris financial centre, showcased advances in deforestation-risk screening, transparency tools, and regulatory initiatives (EUDR, SNDI) that guide financial institutions toward nature-positive portfolios and responsible investment in tropical-forest regions.
“If we want to stop deforestation, we must ensure that finance reaches the people and places protecting the forest today. Long-term mechanisms, strong local governance, and Indigenous leadership are the enabling pillars of any lasting solution,” said Rachel Biderman, Senior Vice President and Chief Field Officer for the Americas at Conservation International.
As COP30 elevates the Amazon as a central pillar of global climate ambition, organizers called for scaling these territorial finance models and strengthening multi-actor collaboration to secure the long-term resilience of the world’s largest rainforest.