The Biodiversity Expenditure Review (BER) builds on extensive experience of public expenditure reviews across many policy areas in defining a “biodiversity expenditure”. Besides the public sector, it considers expenditures by a wide range of actors, including the private sector, donors, and civil society actors.

A “biodiversity expenditure” is any expenditure whose purpose is to have a positive impact or to reduce or eliminate pressures on biodiversity. These biodiversity expenditures include “direct” expenditures that have biodiversity as their principal purpose, or ‘causa finalis’, as well as “indirect” expenditures that have biodiversity as their secondary or joint purpose.

The chapter is divided into three sections: Section 4.1 covers the objectives, main concepts, expected outputs and links to other chapters; Section 4.2 describes the detailed steps in the BER methodology and associated guidance; Section 4.3 provides guidance on developing and communicating conclusions and recommendations.