The United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) has helped partner governments mobilize more than US$2.7 billion in finance for nature globally, marking a major leap from US$1.7 billion in 2024. This growth highlights how countries are increasingly integrating nature into their fiscal planning and redirecting funds from environmentally harmful to nature-positive policies. The announcement was made during the 11th Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Dialogue on Biodiversity Finance in Mérida, Mexico, signaling a transformative shift in how nations plan, budget, and invest for a sustainable future.
According to Midori Paxton, UNDP’s Nature Hub Director, these results show how nationally owned approaches can realign public budgets, markets, and investments with the goals of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, creating benefits for both people and the planet. Currently, BIOFIN-backed biodiversity finance solutions—including green bonds, ecological fiscal transfers, biodiversity-linked insurance, and subsidy reforms—are being implemented in 41 countries, with 91 more collaborating. This represents one of the largest global efforts to embed nature-positive priorities into economic policymaking.
BIOFIN operates in partnership with the European Commission and the governments of Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, Flanders, the UK, Canada, France, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The initiative focuses on strengthening public finance institutions, policy frameworks, and fiscal systems to help governments generate sustainable, domestic finance flows for nature-positive development. GEF CEO Carlos Manuel Rodríguez emphasized that by aligning budgets and financial systems with biodiversity goals, countries are unlocking economic potential, supporting the Convention on Biological Diversity, and fostering long-term growth and resilience.
The world faces a severe biodiversity finance gap of over US$700 billion annually, the shortfall between current spending and the investment required to halt biodiversity loss. With around one million species at risk of extinction—mainly due to habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and invasive species—protecting nature is not just an environmental issue but an economic imperative. Since more than half of global GDP depends on natural systems, biodiversity loss directly undermines jobs, productivity, and growth. Addressing this crisis is also essential to combating climate change, as healthy ecosystems play a crucial role in carbon absorption, disaster risk reduction, and sustainable development.
Several countries are already showcasing tangible progress. Zambia has mobilized US$150 million through a green bond for renewable energy, while Malaysia’s Ecological Fiscal Transfer (EFT) system now allocates hundreds of millions annually to states conserving biodiversity. Mexico, celebrating a decade of BIOFIN collaboration, has catalyzed over US$14 million for biodiversity projects. Kazakhstan has integrated biodiversity into national budgets, ensuring long-term ecosystem financing and expanding protected areas to over 10% of its territory. In Colombia and Ecuador, green loan schemes and environmental funds are advancing sustainable production and conservation, while the Philippines has institutionalized biodiversity finance planning across government, unlocking recurring national budget allocations for nature.
BIOFIN’s Biodiversity Finance Plans (BFPs) are officially recognized under the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework as a key mechanism for translating national biodiversity commitments into measurable financing actions. This growing global movement underscores how nature finance can deliver environmental sustainability, economic opportunity, and social resilience—laying the groundwork for a nature-positive, climate-secure future.
