Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN II)

The financing of biodiversity conservation is a key issue in the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Most countries lack reliable information on the actual costs that are needed to effectively implement their biodiversity strategies, nor do they know where the necessary funds can be sourced and how they can be used to implement their strategies. The BIOFIN initiative, meanwhile active in 37 countries, is a global partnership that supports its partner countries by addressing these knowledge gaps. Financing solutions are being developed and implemented in a second step. BIOFIN Phase II, which is financed through the IKI Corona Response Package, focuses on four signature solutions: Support countries to deal with the impacts of COVID-19, results based and effective budgeting for biodiversity, reducing harmful subsidies and expenditures and greening the financial sector.

Project data

Countries: Argentina, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Georgia, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Malawi, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Egypt, Thailand, Gabon, Niger, Viet Nam, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Uganda, Fiji, Maldives, Namibia, Malaysia
IKI funding: 40,000,000.00 €
Duration: 01/2018 till 12/2027
Status: open
Implementing organisation: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Political Partner: Diverse biodiversity relevant institutions in the respective partner countries/Diverse biodiversitätsrelevante Institutionen in den entsprechenden Partnerländern
Online: https://fire.biofin.org/

https://www.biofin.org/

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State of implementation/results

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is planning a new global program that will allow 91 countries to establish their own national biodiversity financing plan. The program is scheduled to begin in 2024.
A new funding database (FIRE) was launched in June 2023 fire.biofin.org and has already attracted over 16,000 visitors.
The e-learning module on biodiversity finance reached its 1000th participant who received a certificate.
In 2023, Canada joined as a global funding partner and contributed on climate change and gender.
UNDP conducted a study in five emerging economies (Indonesia, India, Mexico, Zambia and Costa Rica) to assess their readiness to disclose nature-related data. The results were published in a publication, National readiness for nature-related disclosures in emerging markets, to provide practical insights to decision makers and experts.
Published in late 2022, Investing in the Planet's Safety Net is a collection of biodiversity finance stories from the field, written by one of UNDP-BIOFIN's partner organizations.
The BIOFIN website was heavily visited during the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), helping to double the total number of views to over 230,000 by 2022.
The government of Botswana introduced updated protected area fees in April 2022.
BIOFIN Ecuador worked with the Corporación Nacional de Finanzas Populares y Solidarias (CONAFIPS) to create the first green credit lines for the popular and solidarity economy, and after completing consultations and training in May 2022, the government pledged to provide approximately $108 million for new credit lines.
Municipal budgets for biodiversity in Guatemala totaled US$1.2 million over several years.
In April 2022, the Thai island of Koh Tao introduced a new visitor fee that can generate annual revenues of between $180,000 and $360,000 for coral restoration and waste management.
A crowdfunding campaign in Costa Rica led by the Vice President raised $1.7 million from public organizations, businesses, and individuals.
BIOFIN Mongolia worked to improve enforcement of a national law on natural resource user fees through a new regulation. In conjunction with the launch of a transparent online database for environmental allocations, municipalities have already begun reporting their new budget allocations, which show a notable increase of $3 million for the 2023 budget compared to previous years.