Campaign for Nature

March 1, 2022

Leading environment groups have agreed that the US, the countries of the European Union, the UK, Japan, Canada and other wealthy countries should support a target of at least $60 billion annually of international finance for biodiversity in developing countries. To stop biodiversity loss and achieve a nature-positive economy, this financing effort must be part of a broader and holistic package to close the biodiversity finance gap, including increased domestic and private finance for biodiversity and the elimination of  public and private investments that are harmful to biodiversity.

The recommended $60 billion figure was released in advance of a major round of United Nations biodiversity negotiations set to take place in Geneva, Switzerland this month—an important moment on the road to the final biodiversity summit in Kunming, China later this year.

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OMFIF

January 18, 2022

Looking ahead in 2022, we can be sure that the sustainability themes of last year will continue to gain prominence in the discussions surrounding the role of the finance sector. Yet after a year of pledges, 2022 must be a year of action.

In particular, there are growing expectations for financial institutions to assess and improve their impact on systemic issues such as climate change and social justice, with regulators watching closely to ensure they are walking the walk. The sector is expected to consider how capital allocation impacts the transition, whether providing funding to new climate solutions or withdrawing capital from harmful activities.

Furthermore, pressure is mounting on investors to responsibly steward the assets they invest in. This means not just factoring environmental, social and governance issues into investment decisions, but engaging with investees to support and drive them towards a more sustainable footing. Advocacy with policy-makers is also key in shaping a system that operates more effectively in the interests of end-investors, society and the environment.

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Reuters

January 11, 2021
A global fund launched on Tuesday aims to boost climate financing to indigenous communities to help them secure land rights and preserve forested areas from the Congo Basin to the Andes, the initiative's backers said.

Governments, philanthropists and companies are expected to contribute to the Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative (CLARIFI), which will distribute funding among groups working to conserve forests and other ecosystems on the ground.

Over the last decade, less than 1% of international climate finance has gone to indigenous and local communities to manage forests that absorb planet-heating carbon emissions and are rich in biodiversity, but the new fund hopes to change that.

"For too long indigenous peoples and local communities have received shockingly little climate funding," said Stanley Kimaren ole Riamit, founder-director of Kenyan group Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners and a CLARIFI steering committee member. The fund will act as the "missing link" between donors that want to curb climate change and conserve biodiversity, and forest groups with the skills to do that, said Solange Bandiaky-Badji, coordinator of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), an NGO which is leading CLARIFI with the Campaign for Nature group.

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Campaign for Nature

January 11, 2022
As the role played by Indigenous Peoples and local communities in safeguarding the planet gains long-due recognition by global climate and conservation initiatives, their representatives and allies have launched a new mechanism to finance locally-led efforts with full respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

The Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative (CLARIFI), led by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and Campaign for Nature (C4N), will mobilize and strategically deploy public and private funds to scale up the legal recognition of Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ rights, as well as their efforts to strengthen their conservation of natural resources, traditional livelihoods, and gender justice.

About 1.8 billion Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities claim, inhabit and steward the earth’s most critical ecosystems, including its forests. Securing their rights and following their guidance is a powerful bottom-up opportunity to address the catastrophic threats facing the planet. For example, RRI estimates that 33% of the Earth’s tropical forest carbon is at risk without recognizing community rights to their lands. Securing these rights will avoid 1.1 to 7.4 GtC02e of emissions.

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Responsible Investor

December 3, 2021
The dust may have settled on COP26, but a different – and potentially less disappointing - Conference of the Parties in on the horizon, and it’s one that investors should be watching closely.

COP15 is aspiring to do for biodiversity what COP21 did for climate change. Where COP21 was the birthplace of the Paris Agreement, the second leg of COP15 in May 2022 hopes to sign off on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework - an international agreement on how we can “live in harmony with nature” by 2050.  

It could be argued that regulation is steering the agenda for climate finance, but when it comes to biodiversity investors are moving fast to make sure they stay ahead of the rulemakers. Over the past two weeks alone, there have been developments on all three of the core components needed to build a sustainability market: committed assets, disclosure guidelines and new financial products.  

On Tuesday, nine more investors - including pension funds KLP, PensionDanmark and ERAFP - signed up to the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge. The pledge, which now has 84 backers, commits institutions to collaborating, engaging, setting targets and reporting on biodiversity by 2025.

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Global Citizen

December 2, 2021
Conservation is about protecting that which sustains life on Earth — the rivers that flow with fresh water, the soil rooting crops in place, the forests and marinescapes that release oxygen.

Framed in this way, conservation seems like an undertaking that would be universally supported. 

But conservationists face countless challenges, from the industrial forces invested in exploiting natural resources and polluting ecosystems to a general lack of funding and government support. Efforts to conserve an environment have long been framed by opponents as a threat to jobs and community well-being — as if any jobs or well-being would exist without a functioning environment.

This opposition appears to be fading as the climate and biodiversity crisis brings increasing devastation. Organizations are receiving waves of funding, and the voices of Indigenous people, who have long advocated for reciprocity with nature, are being elevated. The United Nations has deemed now until 2030 to be part of the Decade on Restoration, a globally coordinated effort to heal the planet. An increasing number of countries have pledged to protect 30% of land and marine spaces by 2030, and some corporations are beginning to transform their supply chains and operations.

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World Economic Forum

December 2, 2021
The conservation movement, since its origins in the 19th century, has primarily relied on public funding and philanthropic contributions to achieve its ends. The Global Canopy Programme estimates that the total annual expenditure on conservation to date has been $50 billion, of which more than 80% was from governmental and philanthropic sources. Ecosystem Marketplace similarly estimates the annual flows of private investment dollars into conservation in the low billions of dollars, with the bulk of these funds going to sustainable food and fibre rather than habitat conservation.

In November 2021 at COP26, a collective $12 billion for forest-related climate finance between 2021-2025 was announced with the support of 11 nations. Yet, all these expenditures lag significantly behind the annual expenditures needed to preserve the planet’s biodiversity, estimated by Credit Suisse, McKinsey & Co and the World Wildlife Fund to be between $300 and $400 billion. Without private investment dollars, this shortfall is likely to persist indefinitely.

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ENDS Report

November 8, 2021
In a conversation with fellow economist Lord Stern at COP26, Sir Partha Dasgupta said that a ‘bold and imaginative’ response is needed to provide a financial incentive to protect globally valuable ecosystems.

“Rainforests are a global public good… and yet they are in national jurisdictions,” said Dasgupta, the author of a review of the economics of biodiversity commissioned by the Treasury. But the incentive that they have to protect such habitats is less than their value for the biosphere as a whole, posing an economic dilemma. There is a similar problem with the deep ocean, too: “nobody has to pay for it” when extracting resources such as fish or minerals, the professor said.

So a new body to protect global public goods, akin to the International Monetary Fund or World Bank but operating under the United Nations, should be established, he argued. They could charge for access, providing funding for the maintenance of ecosystem services.

A good deal of negotiation would be needed to set it up, of course – “but I think we should not fear that”.

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The Independent - OpEd

November 3, 2021
Reversing nature loss by 2030, while also halving greenhouse gas emissions this decade, is critical to avoid climate catastrophe. Nature can contribute up to a third of the climate action needed over the next decade, along with measurable benefits for biodiversity and people.

COP26 is the biggest moment for forests and nature since the Paris Agreement in 2015. Glasgow is producing the largest ever financial incentives for protecting forests, with unprecedented commitments from donor nations, investors and companies. 

Yesterday, more than 30 leading financial institutions, collectively with over US$ 8.7 trillion in assets under management, committed to tackle agricultural commodity-driven deforestation as part of broader efforts to drive the global shift towards sustainable production and nature-based solutions.

On top of that, more than 100 government leaders representing over 85% of the world’s forests committed to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030, a pledge that was backed by $12 billions of public fund and more than $7 billion of private commitments, including exciting initiatives like the LEAF Coalition, the Natural Capital Investment Alliance and the Finance for the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco (IFACC) initiative.

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South China Morning Post

October 12, 2021
China will donate 1.5 billion yuan (US$232.5 million) to set up a new fund to help developing countries protect the variety of plant and animal life, President Xi Jinping has pledged at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15).

“China will take the lead and contribute 1.5 billion yuan to set up the Kunming Biodiversity Fund to support biodiversity development of developing countries,” Xi told the conference via video link on Tuesday. “China calls for and welcomes all parties to contribute and support strengthening protection of biodiversity.”

Xi also pledged to accelerate the development of wind and solar power in China.

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Asia News International

September 23, 2021
Nine organisations have pledged 5 billion US dollars over the next ten years to support the creation, expansion, management and monitoring of protected and conserved areas of land, inland water and sea, working with indigenous peoples, local communities, civil society and governments, the United Nations said.

Heads of State, philanthropic leaders and indigenous representatives came together on Wednesday to announce unprecedented commitments to protect and restore nature at the opening session of the Nature for Life Hub, a high-level event Transformative Action for Nature and People, coinciding with the 76th United Nations General Assembly, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

“This is not a moment where we should not have hope. At the centre of all this, people will have to be the ones who shape what happens next,” Achim Steiner UNDP Administrator said here in a statement.

“Societies have found within themselves the ability to address things that often were long overdue whether it was the issues of inequality or exclusion, but also investments in systematic transformations. We are investing in one another’s ability to, together, change the trajectory of the world,” he added.

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African Arguments

September 23, 2021
Earlier this week, nine philanthropic organisations launched the “Protecting Our Planet Challenge” and pledged $5 billion to protect and conserve 30% of the planet by 2030 (30×30). This can be achieved by supporting protected areas and indigenous stewardship of their territories. This marks the largest-ever philanthropic commitment to nature conservation.

Whilst this may not naturally lead you to consider the implications for peace and security, this type of financial commitment could play an important role in the global effort to bring peace, prosperity and sustainability to the continent of Africa.

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E&E News

September 22, 2021
A coalition of nine charitable groups announced today that they will jointly commit $5 billion toward an aggressive pledge that aims to conserve 30% of the world’s lands and waters by 2030.

The pledge includes Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos’ commitment on Monday to direct $1 billion — 10 percent of his $10 billion effort to address climate change — to the global conservation goal commonly known as 30×30 (Greenwire, Sept. 21).

Both the Rainforest Trust and the Wyss Foundation will likewise provide $500 million to the "Protecting Our Planet Challenge."

Additional funds come from the charitable fund Arcadia; Bloomberg Philanthropies; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation; the indigenous rights nonprofit Nia Tero; and Re:wild, a group founded by conservation scientists and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

“We can solve the crisis facing nature,” philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss said in a statement announcing the pledge. “But it’s going to take the wealthiest nations and the wealthiest individuals committing to reinvest our enormous bounties here on Earth, safeguarding nature and protecting our lands, waters, and wildlife.”

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Reuters

September 22, 2021
Philanthropists and investors committed $5 billion to nature restoration and conservation on Wednesday, a move environmental activists welcomed as the highest sum of private funding ever pledged.

The funding, pledged at an event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, will focus on the "30by30" target, which aims to protect 30% of the planet's land and water over the next decade.

Scientists and conservationists say this is key to protecting biodiversity, which encompasses millions of species and natural processes in ecosystems such as rainforests and oceans, and is under threat from human-driven activities such as industrial agriculture, fishing, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Some $150 billion a year is currently pledged on conservation and so-called nature-positive initiatives that prevent degradation of nature but up to $1 trillion a year is needed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, according to the Convention for Biodiversity, an intergovernmental U.N. agency that leads global biodiversity negotiations.

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Thomson Reuters

September 22, 2021
A group of private donors pledged a record $5 billion to help safeguard the planet's plants, animals and ecosystems at an event during the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

The nine charitable funders, which include the Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Rainforest Trust, launched the decade-long "Protecting Our Planet Challenge" to help finance larger and better-managed natural areas worldwide.

"Halting and reversing biodiversity loss and climate change requires expanded protected and conserved areas, especially in tropical forests," said James Deutsch, CEO of the Rainforest Trust, which contributed $500 million to the pot.

"Developing nations and indigenous peoples need financing to achieve this, which is why we are pledging to more than double our level of funding between now and 2030, and (are) urging other private and public funders to do the same," he added in a statement.

The Finance for Biodiversity Pledge also said on Wednesday that 75 financial institutions - worth a combined 12 trillion euros ($14 trillion) in assets - have committed to protecting and restoring biodiversity through their investments.

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