Bonn Conference Surfaces Finance Gaps in COP30 Deforestation Roadmap

Countries clashed at the Bonn Climate Conference over a COP30 roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, with rainforest nations demanding predictable payments for conservation while developed countries pushed regulation, market integrity and supply-chain measures. Key questions on finance mechanisms, definitions of forest degradation and accountability remain unresolved ahead of COP31.

The COP30 Presidency convened a dedicated event on June 9 at the 64th session of UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies to give the deforestation roadmap its first airing in an official multilateral platform. Guyana and Suriname argued that the global economy currently rewards deforestation and penalises conservation, with countries that have kept forests standing receiving comparatively little capital. The Coalition for Rainforest Nations called for scaled-up results-based finance and better use of REDD+ and Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Historically, less than one per cent of climate-related official development assistance has reached indigenous peoples and local communities directly.

The European Union's intervention centred on supply-chain accountability through the EU Deforestation Regulation, which restricts imports of six commodities linked to deforestation, and called for redirecting agricultural subsidies away from high-deforestation practices. Switzerland focused on increased transparency and documentation, raising concerns about carbon credit integrity and the risk of double counting emission reductions, and called for universally accepted definitions of forest degradation. France highlighted biodiversity credits as emerging financial instruments that value forests as ecosystems rather than purely as carbon stocks, and called for blended finance to mobilise private capital.

Civil society groups pressed countries on whether payments under the roadmap would reach indigenous peoples and local communities, who are active stewards of most of the world's tropical forests. The roadmap as presented aims to support national fund architectures that channel payments directly to communities with legal land tenure rights embedded in the mechanism, but whether this will be realised rather than absorbed by national bureaucracies was left as an open question. The COP30 Presidency indicated the roadmap process will continue in the coming months, with country positions expected to sharpen before COP31 in Antalya.

Key figure — Less than 1% of climate ODA reaches indigenous communities directly