UNEP-WCMC has launched a new report exploring options for policymakers and financial institutions to collaborate in advancing the private finance sector role in the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans, known as NBSAPs.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) sets ambitious global targets to take urgent action for halting and reversing biodiversity loss. These global ambitions are primarily delivered at the national level, through NBSAPs and associated national targets.

Achieving these targets will require a substantial increase in the mobilization of financial resources from all sources: international and domestic, public and private. Closing the global biodiversity finance gap – estimated at USD 700 billion per year – calls for a systemic shift in financial flows. This was reflected in the landmark decision on resource mobilization reached at the 16^th Conference of the Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD COP16).

Governments alone cannot meet this challenge. The private finance sector (including banks, asset managers, insurers and impact investors) can help to play a pivotal role, both in mobilizing resources for biodiversity and especially in aligning mainstream financial flows with biodiversity goals.

Making commitments at a national level

Aligning financial flows to halt biodiversity loss and promote its conservation and sustainable use requires increased awareness and capacity, stronger collaboration, and an enabling policy environment.

NBSAPs are the primary tool for countries to turn global biodiversity commitments into national action. They set out how countries aim to meet the full scope of targets of the KMGBF.

Although the importance of private finance is widely recognized, understanding of the mechanisms available and the best way to harness them for the implementation of NBSAPs remains limited. In a bid to advance this, our biodiversity finance experts at UNEP-WCMC worked with members of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Financial Services Task Force* to explore potential entry points for private finance institutions in the delivery of NBSAPs. The work was enriched by insights from interviews with key stakeholders from the CBD, the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the UNDP Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) and others, along with a closer look at many of the recently updated NBSAPs.

Mobilizing finance for biodiversity

UNEP-WCMC has now launched the findings and insight from this work, providing options for incorporating the perspectives and potential contributions of private finance sector actors into the update and implementation of NBSAPs. Aimed at policymakers and private finance institutions, ‘Mobilizing Finance for Biodiversity: The Private Finance Sector and the Implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs)’ seeks to explore options to foster greater private sector involvement in achieving ambitions for biodiversity by creating supportive enabling environments that encourage contributions to NBSAP implementation.

Through producing these insights, UNEP-WCMC and the wider team hope to inspire engagement between governments and the financial sector to accelerate mobilization of financial resources for biodiversity and to ensure that financial flows work for nature.

Country-specific outlooks delve deeper

As part of the project, the team also developed ‘outlooks’ for five selected countries. Each outlook presents how the financial sector has been considered and engaged in the review or update of the country’s NBSAP. They also outline the current biodiversity finance landscape, highlight ongoing developments, and identify entry points for further engagement with the financial sector to support NBSAP implementation.

The outlook countries – Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Mexico and the United Kingdom – provide a breadth of geographical representation and include both developed and megadiverse countries.

The outlooks identify many different entry points for engagement and contribution of the private finance sector to national biodiversity commitments. For example:

• In Brazil, the policy and legal framework for private biodiversity finance is evolving quickly. The Ecological Transformation Plan, led by the Ministry of Finance, along with potential for development of market-based approaches to large-scale ecosystem restoration, could open up new opportunities for private sector investment.

• In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there is significant untapped potential for biodiversity finance, but mobilizing private resources remains challenging. Development finance institutions can help address this by promoting innovative financial instruments – such as de-risking mechanisms and partial credit guarantees.

• In Indonesia, there is potential to unlock investment in existing instruments (e.g., Ecosystem Restoration Concessions and Social Forestry Programmes) and to create enabling conditions for the development of innovative finance mechanisms, such as blended finance schemes, green and blue bonds, faith-based financing, and debt-for-nature swaps.

• In Mexico, the importance of innovative blended finance mechanisms is emphasized, with private financial institutions encouraged to explore additional opportunities for their development – especially at the subnational level, where they can build multisectoral partnerships and align with local priorities.

• Within the UK, continued engagement by the government with the private sector on the development of nature market codes and frameworks, with coordination across the developed nations, would increase confidence and investment in these markets.

The outlooks make it clear that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to mobilizing and aligning private finance for biodiversity. Each country must design and deliver options or mechanisms that align with existing frameworks and fit national political, economic and cultural circumstances.

Read the report in full here

Download the NBSAPs and Private Finance Outlooks via the following links: Brazil | Mexico | United Kingdom | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Indonesia

To review all NBSAPs submitted by countries so far, use the CBD’s online reporting tool here.

*The Outlooks and the report are a product of the project ‘Leveraging private finance considerations in the update and implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs)’ which has been led by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). We are grateful to the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) and Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group for their funding and expert input, and to all members of the SMI Financial Services Taskforce for their support. The views and opinions expressed are only those of the authors and not those of the funding institutions.

Main image: Aaron Burden on Unsplash