EU Commits €12 Million to Boost UNDP's Biodiversity Finance, Supporting Indigenous Involvement and Marine Conservation

Since 2018, BIOFIN has mobilized over $1 billion in financing for nature across 41 countries and is actively working with 91 additional countries to implement Biodiversity Finance Plans.

The European Union (EU) has announced a €12 million contribution to the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), aiming to support countries in achieving both national and global biodiversity targets. The funding, disclosed at the biodiversity COP16 conference in Colombia, will enable the involvement of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in biodiversity credit markets, improve tools like the Finance Resource Database for Biodiversity (FIRE), and provide sustainable financing for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

Since 2018, BIOFIN has mobilized over $1 billion in financing for nature across 41 countries and is actively working with 91 additional countries to implement Biodiversity Finance Plans. These plans will stimulate new investments in conservation efforts and redirect spending that could harm biodiversity. Aurélie Godefroy, Deputy Head of Unit at EU INTPA, emphasized the EU’s commitment to helping countries meet biodiversity targets through innovative financial solutions and partnerships.

“Through initiatives like BIOFIN, the EU is committed to helping countries develop and implement innovative finance solutions, ensuring more resources are directed toward biodiversity preservation,” said Godefroy. “Our support will enable partners to monitor biodiversity in public budgets, address harmful subsidies, and attract additional resources through market-based instruments.”

Scaling Regional and National Biodiversity Initiatives

BIOFIN’s efforts, funded in part by this new EU contribution, will focus on scaling biodiversity finance strategies globally, with special emphasis on marine financing in West Africa and on creating investable conservation projects in South and Southeast Asia through the newly established Tiger Landscape Investment Fund. Nationally, countries will expand their Biodiversity Finance Plans to include result-based budgeting, private sector partnerships, and reforms to harmful subsidies.

Assistant Secretary General and UNDP Bureau Director Marcos Neto expressed appreciation for the EU’s longstanding support for BIOFIN, noting that this funding ensures the initiative can scale efforts to over 130 countries. “This new contribution will help us drive national biodiversity finance plans, support biodiversity credit markets, and guide governments in redirecting spending that negatively impacts nature,” Neto said.

Addressing the Global Biodiversity Finance Gap

BIOFIN also launched new Results-Based Budgeting (RBB) Guidelines to improve the financial management of public biodiversity spending. With an estimated $700 billion global biodiversity finance gap, the guidelines are designed to help countries allocate public funds more effectively toward biodiversity objectives.

The guidelines emphasize the importance of public budgets—responsible for 80% of biodiversity finance—and outline a framework that aligns government spending with measurable conservation outcomes. This approach is intended to help governments integrate biodiversity priorities across various sectors, supporting a “whole-of-government” strategy to address biodiversity loss.

“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.

With global biodiversity declining at unprecedented rates and over 1 million species at risk of extinction, the EU’s contribution and BIOFIN’s new financial guidelines are expected to play a crucial role in supporting countries’ conservation targets and fulfilling commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.