Biodiversity Finance Initiative is ‘one of our flagship programmes’ says UNDP Chief

UNDP Administrator Helen Clark highlighted the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) as ‘one of UNDP’s flagship programmes’ in a keynote speech in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea on October 15th.

Speaking at the opening of the High-Level Segment of the 12th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UNDP Chief explained how BIOFIN has ‘developed a methodology for “bottom-up” assessments of the biodiversity finance gap,’

‘This involves engaging Ministries of Finance and Planning in identifying areas of expenditure which may be having negative effects on biodiversity’ she said.

She explained how the ‘work lays the ground for estimating the cost of the actions needed to address biodiversity loss, while at the same time maximizing the human development benefits of those actions.’

‘When the analysis is complete, countries are better equipped to identify a range of funding sources – private and public, national and international - to fill the “biodiversity finance gap” she added.

Read Helen Clark’s speech in full here.

BIOFIN currently supports 19 countries. It is supported by Germany, the European Union and Switzerland.

The opening session of the 12th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity included speeches from Korean Prime Minister Chung Hang won, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Environment Facility Naoko Ishii, Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme Ibrahim Thiaw and Braulio Ferreira de Souza, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent a video message.

BIOFIN highlighted to Korean Press

Immediately following the opening session, the UNDP Administrator highlighted BIOFIN in a press briefing with Korean media.

‘There is a desire to take this initiative further than the existing 19 countries’ she said.

‘There are many countries that want to come in. And so we will be able to support as many countries as we can get further funding for’.