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Remarks by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility.

"Presidente Lula,
Excellencies,
It is an honour to join you for the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility.

I thank President Lula and the Government and people of Brazil for their leadership – here in Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, and centre of climate action.

Tropical forests breathe life into our planet.
Yet they remain under relentless assault – treated as short-term profit, not long-term value.
Last year, the world lost the equivalent of 18 football fields of tropical primary forest – every minute.

The Tropical Forest Forever Facility is a bold mechanism to make standing forests more valuable than cleared land – aligning conservation with opportunity, and solidarity with shared prosperity.

Excellencies,
Tropical forests are vital to climate stability.
They protect water and soils, store and remove billions of tonnes of carbon, regulate rainfall, shape weather patterns across continents, and sustain millions of people.
Without tropical forests, there is no path to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
We are dangerously close to a tipping point that could push these ecosystems beyond recovery.

Crossing that line would unleash droughts, fires, and biodiversity loss on a scale humanity cannot control.
We have pledged to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030.
Now we must deliver.

That means supporting forest nations – not as a favour, but as a shared duty;
Cutting emissions from deforestation;
And preserving forests’ immense capacity to store carbon.
By rewarding countries for keeping forests standing, we boost resilience.

By supporting Indigenous Peoples and forest communities, we advance climate justice and safeguard cultures whose knowledge has stewarded nature for millennia.
And by mobilizing long-term, predictable, and affordable finance, we close one of the most persistent gaps in global climate action.
Fairness, inclusion and integrity must be front and centre.
Finance must reach the ground – those protecting forests with their hands, hearts, and heritage.

Excellencies,
Today’s launch is a statement of solidarity and hope.
It shows that developing countries – while bearing the heaviest impacts of the climate crisis – are leading with solutions for all.
From the Amazon to the Congo Basin to Southeast Asia, forest nations prove that protecting nature can drive growth, stability, and dignity.
Now the world must respond with matching ambition.

Governments, development banks, and the private sector must join forces to close the finance gap, unlock investment for sustainable forest economies and scale up monitoring and restoration.
Together, we can ensure tropical forests stand forever – as living pillars of climate stability, biodiversity, resilience, and peace.

Thank you."