Reflections from the Virtual Conference on Biodiversity Finance
Covid-19 stimulus measures must include safeguards for nature to reduce risks of future pandemics. A radical re-think of budgets, investments, and destructive policies that harm biodiversity is essential for long-term recovery after this crisis, according to the international conference on biodiversity that was moved online in April due to the coronavirus.
“Our house is on fire. Incremental changes won’t do it,” said Ines Verleye, one of the 520 participants to the three-day Virtual Global Conference on Biodiversity.
The event was organized by the OECD Biodiversity Land Use and Ecosystems (BLUE) programme, and the UNDP Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN).
“We can build back better and emerge from the current crisis stronger and more resilient than ever – but to do so means choosing policies and actions that protect nature – so that nature can help to protect us,” added Ms. Verleye, one of the Co-chairs of the Thematic Workshop on Resource Mobilisation under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
“The coronavirus is a stark reminder of the complex links between infectious diseases and biodiversity,” said OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurria, in his opening remarks to the conference. “Covid-19 is a powerful messenger with a powerful message – our system is broken,” he added.
Participants to the Virtual Biodiversity Conference included representatives from governments, UN offices, and ministries of planning, environment, and finance from countries around the world. They logged on through Zoom for three consecutive Wednesdays in April. The original plan was to host the meeting at OECD headquarters in Paris.
In his remarks to the participants, UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner, noted that Covid-19 will have a wide-ranging global impact. “The pandemic is more than a health crisis. It will leave deep scars on our world. This is a crisis that knows no borders,” he said. He also stressed, “we can no longer afford finance to be an afterthought in the discourse of the environmental conventions, it needs to be at the foundation.”
Throughout the conference, participants reiterated that investments in biodiversity are investments in the Sustainable Development Goals, contributing directly to poverty reduction, resilience, economic growth, and sustainability.
Before the coronavirus, 2020 was to be the “super-year” for the environment with several planned international policy meetings, each with the potential to set nature on a path to recovery. Most of those conferences have been moved to 2021.
“We should use this crisis as opportunity to rethink our recovery. If 2020 can look disappointing, it buys us time to keep building strong coalitions and finding innovations for biodiversity finance,” said Ms. Brune Poirson, France’s Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition.
Bård Vegar Solhjell, Director General of Norad, was optimistic about the future, even when talking about the repercussions of Covid-19. “We humans have the ability to solve problems we caused ourselves, like wars, natural disasters and even pandemics. We are our best selves when we cooperate together.”
Onno van den Heuvel, global manager of BIOFIN, explained that the world of biodiversity finance needs cooperation from many “stars.” Among those stars from the private sector are commercial banks, development banks, pension funds insurers, private enterprises, asset managers, to name only a few. “We are all part of a global ecosystem – both financial and natural,” he said.
Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, Minister of Environment and Energy, Costa Rica said that we have failed to reach biodiversity targets in part because “we depended on ODA for nature conservation. We haven’t learned to mobilize funds from a range of sources.”
Minister Rodríguez lauded BIOFIN efforts to help countries estimate the size of the gap between what they invest and what they need to reach their biodiversity aims. Often, funding can be found within local and national budgets. “Countries need to do better in mobilizing domestic resources,” he urged.
He pointed to Costa Rica’s carbon tax as one effective and profitable example. Its carbon tax is linked with the country’s payment for ecosystem services program, which pays farmers and landowners who protect and restore their forests for the carbon, water, and biodiversity services their land provides.
Seychelles was presented as a country at the forefront of innovative financing for biodiversity. Mr. Alain de Comarmond, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, highlighted financial solutions the country is using to maintain its natural environment, with emphasis on its vast marine protected area.
Among the financing measures in the Seychelles are efforts to green the tourism sector, including raising airport service fees and increasing levies on cruise ships and passengers. The country is strengthening its cost recovery fees for more effective biosecurity services. At the heart of its approach is the creation of a Biodiversity Finance Unit within the government that will coordinate biodiversity projects and mainstream financing into the budgetary and economic planning processes.
Anabelle Plantilla, National Coordinator for BIOFIN in the Philippines, spoke about the Biodiversity Finance Plans in her country. The Philippines was one of the first in the world to undertake a BIOFIN assessment to analyse financial solutions that could help the country reach its biodiversity aims.
For the Philippines, the approach has meant positive change. Its Expanded National Protected Areas System Bill was amended to substantially increase the number of protected areas by 94 in the country. Revenue sources to finance the protected areas will emanate from both public and private enterprises, including tourism and an oil and gas fund.
Vinod Mathur, Chairperson of the National Biodiversity Authority in India, and Fernanda Montero from the Ministry of Finance in Mexico, both explained that biodiversity funding does not need to be new money. Countries can take advantage of existing mechanisms, including in the public sector in subnational governments.
During a technical session on biodiversity expenditure reviews, conference participants pointed to some of the challenges they face in analysing and tagging local and national budgets to estimate how much goes towards biodiversity.
Dewa Ekayana, of the Indonesian Ministry of Finance, noted that biodiversity is a new expenditure category and “tracking it needs political will and capacity.” He added that tagging and tracking are important to generate more effective budget allocation.
Finland’s, Armi Liinamaa, of the Ministry of Finance, and Marina von Weissenberg, of the Ministry of the Environment, Sustainable development, and budgeting, both noted that up-to-date and accurate statistics are vital for effective biodiversity finance.
Fernando García, who works with UNDP-BIOFIN in Guatemala, spoke about some of the unique issues in integrating biodiversity into municipal budgeting. He emphasized that it is a long-term process. With high poverty rates in municipalities, biodiversity is not a political priority. Therefore, consideration should be made as to how biodiversity will improve livelihoods for the poor and provide much-needed resources for municipalities.
Do No Harm
How to reform subsidies and policies that are harmful to biodiversity was another important focus of the Virtual Biodiversity Conference. Governments spend approximately USD 500 billion a year in supports that are potentially harmful to biodiversity. That is five to six times more than total spending on biodiversity.
“In the last 50 years, significantly more resources have been allocated to expenditure harming biodiversity than to conserve it. If we invest in biodiversity, we will see financial benefits. It is in our economic interest to conserve and protect biodiversity. If we do not, the costs will be higher later,” said Yasha Feferholtz, Member of the Expert Panel on Resource Mobilization for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, UN Convention on Biological Diversity.