The Policy and Institutional Review has provided an important snapshot into the current policy, institutional, and finance landscape for biodiversity finance in Belize. The introduction and implementation of the BIOFIN in Belize, in and of itself, has raised the profile of biodiversity finance in Belize.
 

The Financial Needs Assessment (FNA) is the third output of BIOFIN, that assists in estimating the funds required to achieve the biodiversity targets of the country in accordance with the activities of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). It aims to assist policy makers in understanding the total cost implications for implementing each NBSAP activity and aggregates the total cost for all strategies and actions within Belize's NBSAP
 

The result of applying the BIOFIN approach in Belize is The Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFP) presented here as the fourth output of BIOFIN Phase 1. The Plan proposes a suite of biodiversity finance solutions, which are capable of raising the financial and other resources required to achieve the country’s biodiversity targets in accordance with the activities of the National Biodiversity Strategy
and Action Plan (NBSAP), the long-term development strategy Horizon 2030, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Belize acknowledges the urgency of effecting the finance plan given the reality that its economic stability strongly links to the conservation of its biological resources.
 

The Biodiversity Expenditure Review contains detailed data on public, private, and civil society biodiversity expenditures data. The BER engaged in assessing the expenditure status of investments pertinent to biodiversity conservation and environmental management throughout the period of 2012 – 2017.The overarching primary sectors and most pertinent agencies were identified and selected from
the Policy and Institutional Review’s prioritization “power and interest” matrix to undergo BIOFIN expenditure assessment. The BER focused its assessment on the key sectors and agencies which contribute both directly and/or indirectly to biodiversity conservation in Belize. 
 

This report compiles the findings from three assessments conducted as part of the national Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) process. The three assessments discussed include the policy and institutional review (PIR), the budget and expenditure review (BER), and the financial needs assessment (FNA). The PIR analyzes the policy and institutional context, identifies the biodiversity targets to be achieved, and lays out the context for the intended change in financing. The BER analyzes public and private expenditures for biodiversity and establishes past and projected expenditures on biodiversity. The FNA provides an estimation of the financing required to achieve identified biodiversity targets.

The FNA also assesses the financing gap between the status quo of projected expenses and the estimated budget to meet biodiversity goals. Findings from these three assessments feed into the formulation of the country’s Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFP) and are used to develop prioritized finance solutions that are then taken into the implementation phase of the BIOFIN process.

BIOFIN Thailand assesses the policy and institutional context by classifying biodiversity resources into four ecological functions. The latter are terrestrial, marine and coastal, wetlands, and urban ecosystems. The PIR finds that the key document that sets national goals for biodiversity is the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). In addition to this, key policy documents include the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE)’s 20-Year Strategic Plan (2017 – 2036), and the strategic and action plans of important line agencies.

These policy documents are set within the context of national development policies, which are the 20-Year National Strategy (2018 – 2037) and the five-year National Economic and Social Development Plan (NESDP). For biodiversity, key implementing agencies are all within MONRE. Three agencies are especially important. They are the Royal Forest Department (RFD), the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation (DNP), and the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR). Of these three, RFD and DNP are responsible for the terrestrial ecosystem while the DMCR’s mandate is with regards to marine and coastal ecosystems. There are no designated agencies that are directly responsible for wetlands and urban ecosystems. Biodiversity in these two ecosystems are overseen by a wide range of agencies. Nonetheless, given the number of projects and activities related to wetlands in the NBSAP, it can be said that the wetlands ecosystem is given much importance. While the majority of institutions working on biodiversity in Thailand are government agencies, non-profit organizations and some from the private sector have also contributed to biodiversity efforts. 

This supplementary guidance document to the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) 2018 Workbook aims to enhance public and private collaboration to unlock private capital for biodiversity and ecosystems. It is targeted towards biodiversity finance practitioners, financial institutions, conservation agencies, and private sector investors. It is BIOFIN’s ambition that it will assist them to find creative and appropriate private sector finance solutions for conserving biodiversity and ecosystems and, in doing, contribute to a growing global movement that is pushing the boundaries of private investment in conservation and monitoring closely the benefits, risks and accountabilities of this.

Summary:  

Biodiversity provides humanity with innumerable benefits. The most important benefit is the indispensable ecosystem services that biodiversity provides to the humankind. Since the ecosystem services are permanent needs of the humans, initiatives seeking their protection without deterioration of their values as well as their optimal utilization for meeting the needs of the population should be integrated into the short- and long term environmental programme, laws and procedures for mandatory implementation.

Given that the biodiversity resources have been rapidly depleting over the last half a century, the nations around the globe united with a common goal to plan and take wider-scale actions for new approaches and trends. A bright example is the UN Conference on “Environment and Development” held in Rio-de-Janeiro in 1992 where the decline in biodiversity was recognized globally, and the international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was adopted and followed by ratification of over 160 states including Mongolia. Parliament of Mongolia ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1993 becoming the 30th country to join the Convention.

One of the main recommendations from the 12th Conference of Parties of the CBD was “each party to the CBD should develop their own national biodiversity programme incorporating the Aichi targets. Moreover, rapid developments in the social, economic and environment of Mongolia have necessitated the redevelopment of the National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan ensuring cohesion with the Aichi 20 goals and the environment sector policies. In this regard, extensive research was conducted during 2012-2015, and the National Biodiversity Programme (NBP) was redeveloped and was approved by the Government order no.325 on 29 June 2015. NBP is a mid-term policy document, which elaborates the needs of national and international biodiversity targets, urgent issues to be solved, priority objectives and goals to be achieved. Policy and Institutional Review (PIR) of BIOFIN project aim to review the current biodiversity policies, practices, analyze the biodiversity finance landscapes, mechanisms, research the impacts on biodiversity, and identify pertinent stakeholders and main actors to successfully implement the NBP. 

Environmental legal framework and policy documents are very well established in Mongolia. However, despite the well design of environment policy documents, they lack proper implementation in practice. This could be attributed to the lack of monitoring and evaluation system by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. In other words, the implementation of environmental laws should be improved through an effective monitoring system, especially of the natural resources use. 

Negative and positive impacts on biodiversity were also evaluated as part of the PIR research. It was found out that animal husbandry, agriculture, infrastructure, unplanned development are the main factors that have negative impacts on biodiversity. Moreover, five agricultural subsidies such as cashmere, wool, fertilizers etc., and two mining subsidies have negative impacts. Reducing or removing these subsidies could be an inexpensive alternative for effective biodiversity conservation. 

As part of the biodiversity financing landscape, sources of biodiversity financing as per the current legal framework were analyzed. It was found out that most of the financial resources as per the current legal framework should be funded by the state and local budget, donor fund, and natural resources use fee. Presently, several finance solutions including the natural resources use fee, the polluter pays principles, protected area fees, and etc. are implemented in Mongolia. Nevertheless, more finance solutions such as conservation trust funds, income generation for protected areas, biodiversity offset, results-based budgeting, should be explored and implemented, as a huge potential was observed. 

Biodiversity pertinent stakeholders were identified with reference to the legal framework and the sectors that have the most impacts on biodiversity. Key actors in implementing the NBP were assessed based on their weight and level of involvement of the identified pertinent stakeholders. Cooperation and partnership among Government ministries, their respective agencies and departments are critical for the implementation of the NBP, especially on initiatives such as to reduce the sectoral impacts (ecological footprint) on biodiversity. In other words, there is a need to study and analyze the sectoral impacts on biodiversity, and the appropriate conservation policies and actions should be incorporated to the respective sectoral policies, as biodiversity conservation activities and ensuring inter-sectoral cooperation is not only the duty of Ministry of Environment and Tourism but of other ministries as well.  A stakeholder mapping with four levels of key actors was identified based on their present involvement in NBP. Successful implementation of the NBP is highly dependent on the key actors’ involvement and cooperation; thus, the following management actions should be ensured for each level of stakeholders.

Level I stakeholders: improve cooperation of horizontal organizations and encourage a mechanism that assess results based on participation.  Level II stakeholders: build their capacity to a level that they can operationalize their interests in biodiversity conservation. Level III stakeholders: establish incentives to increase their interest in biodiversity conservation, so their full capacity and influence are utilized. Level IV stakeholders: explore their hidden capacity and establish incentives to increase their interest in biodiversity conservation. 

Considering the current economic and financial situation in Mongolia, key measures to successfully conserve and sustain biodiversity are: right policy and proactive measures; appropriate options for institutional and management framework; community participation based on citizens’ initiatives; and private sector involvement based on the right balance of profitability and social responsibility.

In this episode of the Finance for Nature Podcast we head to the annual BIOFIN Regional Dialogue for Europe, Asia and Pacific held in late September 2019. We are joined by Mabel Niala from the fintech company, GCash in the Philippines and Anabelle Plantilla, the national coordinator of BIOFIN in the Philippines to discuss the CSR initiative, GCash Forests initiative, which is using a mobile money app to engage users in the Philippines to take steps to be more environmentally friendly and earn points through their app to plant a virtual tree. These virtual trees once earned will be planted for the restoration of the Ipo watershed, which provides much of the water for the Philippines Capital Manilla.

GCash Forests is a partnership between GCash, BIOFIN and WWF.

Launched in 2012, the Biodiversity Finance Initiative – BIOFIN, is a global partnership, that seeks to address the biodiversity finance challenge in a comprehensive manner – building a sound business case for increased investment in the management of ecosystems and biodiversity, with a particular focus on the needs and transformational opportunities at the national level. Phase II of BIOFIN, (2018-2022) is implemented in partnership with the Governments of Flanders, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. For more information, please visit: www.biofin.org