NEWS
Ghana launches BIOFIN to mobilize resource for biodiversity conservation
15 April 2025 – Accra, Ghana – Ghana has officially joined the global Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), launching a new…
Ghana
Ghana’s rich biodiversity underpins key sectors of the economy, including agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism and water resources, while providing essential ecosystem services that support livelihoods, food security and climate resilience. Achieving the country’s biodiversity priorities under the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2025–2030 requires sustained and well-coordinated financing.
Biodiversity finance comes from a combination of government budgets, revenues generated by natural resource institutions, environmental fees and levies, international cooperation and private investment. However, financial flows are spread across multiple institutions and sectors, making it difficult to comprehensively track biodiversity expenditure, assess financing needs and align resources with national biodiversity priorities.
UNDP BIOFIN is supporting the Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology and in partnership with the Ministry of Finance, to strengthen the country’s approach to biodiversity finance. The BIOFIN Ghana team is embedded within the Ministry of Finance, supporting closer integration of biodiversity into public finance and national development planning. A National Project Steering Committee has also been established to provide strategic oversight and strengthen cross-sectoral coordination.
The Policy and Institutional Review is at an advanced stage, while data collection is underway for the Biodiversity Expenditure Review. These assessments will inform the Finance Needs Assessment and Ghana’s Biodiversity Finance Plan, which will identify and prioritize practical finance solutions to improve the use of existing resources and mobilize additional finance for implementation of national biodiversity priorities and the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Finance solutions
1. Biodiversity Budget Tagging
Description: Development of a biodiversity budget tagging framework to enable the systematic identification, tracking and reporting of biodiversity-related public expenditure across sectors, strengthening evidence-based budgeting and resource allocation.
Stage: Under consideration (identified through the PIR)
Lead agencies/partners: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST), UNDP BIOFIN
2. Reform of Biodiversity-Harmful Subsidies
Description: Assessment and reform of selected subsidies in agriculture, fisheries and extractive sectors to reduce incentives that contribute to biodiversity loss while promoting nature-positive production practices, in line with Global Biodiversity Framework Target 18.
Stage: Under consideration (identified through the PIR)
Lead agencies/partners: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Fisheries Commission, Forestry Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, UNDP BIOFIN
3. Biodiversity Credits
Description: Assessment of the feasibility of establishing biodiversity credit mechanisms to attract private investment for ecosystem restoration, conservation and biodiversity enhancement.
Stage: Concept development
Lead agencies/partners: Ministry of Finance, Forestry Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, UNDP BIOFIN
4. Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES)
Description: Development of payment for ecosystem services mechanisms to support the conservation of forests, watersheds and other critical ecosystems by creating incentives for communities and land managers to maintain ecosystem services.
Stage: Under consideration
Lead agencies/partners: Forestry Commission, Water Resources Commission, Ministry of Finance, UNDP BIOFIN
5. Nature-based Carbon Finance
Description: Strengthening opportunities to mobilise finance through REDD+, Article 6 carbon market mechanisms and other nature-based carbon initiatives that deliver biodiversity and climate co-benefits.
Stage: Under consideration
Lead agencies/partners: Forestry Commission, Carbon Market Office, Ministry of Finance, UNDP BIOFIN
6. Biodiversity Mainstreaming in Public Financial Management
Description: Strengthening the integration of biodiversity considerations into national planning, budgeting and public financial management systems to improve coordination, expenditure effectiveness and long-term financing for biodiversity.
Stage: Under consideration
Lead agencies/partners: Ministry of Finance, National Development Planning Commission, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, UNDP BIOFIN
Key results
BIOFIN Ghana is establishing the analytical and institutional foundations required to strengthen biodiversity finance and support implementation of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (2025–2030).
Institutional Strengthening
The project has established a multi-sectoral Project Steering Committee and strengthened collaboration between the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, UNDP and other key biodiversity institutions. The BIOFIN team is embedded within the Ministry of Finance, helping to position biodiversity finance within national public financial management and development planning processes.
Evidence for Policy and Finance Reform
The ongoing Policy and Institutional Review (PIR) and Biodiversity Expenditure Review (BER) are expected to identify policy, legal and institutional reforms that will strengthen biodiversity finance governance, improve coordination across sectors and provide a clearer understanding of biodiversity-related public expenditure.
Emerging Finance Reforms
The BIOFIN process is expected to support the development of biodiversity budget tagging, strengthen biodiversity expenditure tracking, identify opportunities for reforming biodiversity-harmful subsidies, and assess innovative finance mechanisms that can mobilise additional public and private investment for biodiversity conservation.
The findings of the PIR and BER will inform Ghana's Financial Needs Assessment (FNA) and Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFP), which will prioritise finance solutions and provide a strategic roadmap for mobilising and optimising resources to achieve national biodiversity targets and the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.