EU announces €12 million support for global biodiversity conservation efforts led by UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative

Cali – The European Union (EU) announced a €12 million contribution to support countries to achieve national and global biodiversity targets under the United Nations Development Programme’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative. 

The EU funding will support the involvement of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in the development of biodiversity credit markets, improvements to the Finance Resource Database for Biodiversity (FIRE), and sustainable financing for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). 

BIOFIN has helped catalyze over US $1Bn in financing for nature across 41 countries since 2018, currently working with an additional 91 countries to support Biodiversity Finance Plans that will unlock new investments in nature and reduce spending that damages biodiversity. 

The decision was announced on the sidelines of the biodiversity COP16 conference currently underway in Colombia, with representatives from over 190 countries participating in a global stock-taking on commitments made under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 

Global biodiversity is declining at unprecedented rates, with experts warning that over 1 million species are at risk of extinction due to habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, and overexploitation.   

Regionally, the program will focus on marine financing in Western Africa and support investable projects in South and Southeast Asia through a Tiger Landscape Investment Fund set up earlier this year with a wide coalition of partners including the private sector. 

At the national level, countries will scale up finance solutions from their Biodiversity Finance Plans, emphasizing result-based budgeting, harmful subsidy reform and private sector engagement. 

The contribution will be crucial in advancing innovative finance solutions for biodiversity conservation, helping countries achieve their national and global biodiversity goals.

“Through initiatives like BIOFIN, the EU is committed to supporting countries in developing and implementing innovative finance solutions and ensure that more resources are mobilised to preserve biodiversity,” said Aurélie Godefroy, Deputy Head of Unit at EU INTPA.  “This support will help partners to monitor biodiversity across public budgets,  tackle the issue of harmful subsidies, and mobilise additional resources through public and market-based instruments. It is part of EU’s commitment to support its partners in effectively implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework”.

“We appreciate the European Union's continued and long-standing support for BIOFIN. This new contribution ensures that we can scale up our efforts to implement national biodiversity finance plans in more than 130 countries, expand the potential of biodiversity credit markets and help governments screen public spending that is harmful to nature,” said Marcos Neto, Assistant Secretary General, and Director of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support at UNDP.   

BIOFIN launches new methodology for robust financial management of public spending on biodiversity 

Alongside the funding announcement, UNDP released new guidelines to help countries efficiently allocate public budgets to meet ambitious global biodiversity protection targets. The global biodiversity finance gap is estimated at an estimated US$700 billion. 

BIOFIN’s new Results-Based Budgeting (RBB) Guidelines, launched today, offer countries a methodology for more effectively harnessing available financial resources to invest in nature.   

As 80% of biodiversity finance comes from public budgets, the guidelines emphasize the critical role that government spending will play in achieving biodiversity targets. The RBB framework ensures these funds are aligned with concrete goals.

“The Result-Based Budgeting guidelines are an important tool that allows countries to link budget allocations with measurable conservation outcomes, ensuring every dollar spent is working harder to safeguard the planet's biodiversity,” said Onno van den Heuvel, Manager for the Biodiversity Finance Initiative. 

The report emphasizes that biodiversity, is a global development priority that must be addressed by all sectors and levels of government. By using RBB, countries can integrate biodiversity considerations into various policies, planning, and budgeting processes, ensuring a whole-of-government approach to conservation.