How Investing in Nature Can Strengthen the EU Global Gateway Agenda

2 June 2026, Brussels, Belgium - As the European Union advances its Global Gateway strategy to promote sustainable infrastructure and investment worldwide, policymakers, development partners, businesses and conservation experts gathered in Brussels to explore a critical question: how can investing in nature help deliver stronger economic, development and resilience outcomes? Convened by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Wildlife Conservation Society EU Office (WCS EU), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Europe, the high-level dialogue “Investing in Nature to Power the EU Global Gateway” examined how biodiversity finance can support the EU Global Gateway and Team Europe agenda while unlocking greater private sector investment in nature.

The EU Global Gateway is the European Union's strategy to build smart, clean, and secure infrastructure links globally, narrow the investment gap, strengthen supply chains, and promote sustainable development based on EU values. Nature is frequently the missing variable in discussions on sustainable infrastructure and supply chains, yet it remains the ultimate cornerstone of global progress.

As the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Astrid Schomaker, noted, SDGs 14 and 15 are not isolated targets; rather, they are indispensable pillars for achieving the broader Sustainable Development Agenda. The EU currently has two biodiversity targets in place: spending 10 percent of its budget on actions that benefit biodiversity by 2026 and doubling its external spending on biodiversity.

The event spotlighted actionable pathways to catalyze private sector investment in nature, emphasizing how Official Development Assistance (ODA) can act as a catalyst to scale these financial flows. Bringing together more than 60 policymakers, private sector representatives, Embassies, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders, discussions centered on how investing in nature and biodiversity can add value to delivering the EU Global Gateway and Team Europe agenda.

The event opened with welcome remarks from Camilla Brückner, Director of UNDP in Brussels and UN Representative to the EU. High-level speakers Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and Jean Van Wetter, CEO of Enabel, Belgian Agency for International Cooperation, set the scene for a morning of substantive discussion.

This high-level segment underscored a fundamental shift in the paradigm of nature conservation. For decades, protecting ecosystems was viewed primarily through the lens of philanthropy, public grants, and ODA. Today, there is growing recognition among private sector leaders that nature is no longer simply a corporate social responsibility issue. It is a core macroeconomic reality.

Investing in nature is not an act of charity. It is an exercise in corporate resilience and supply chain survival. More than half of global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services, including stable agricultural yields, predictable clean water supplies, timber, and climate regulation. As a result, business balance sheets are directly linked to the health of the living world.

This reality is reflected in the World Economic Forum’s 2026 long-term outlook, where nature loss and other environmental issues are identified among the top risks to the global economy. Yet the private sector cannot act alone. De-risking mechanisms and the repositioning of economic incentives are necessary to ensure that incentives point in the right direction. The EU is playing a global leadership role in this regard, but all countries need to review and strengthen their enabling environments.

Clockwise from top: Camilla Brückner (UNDP), Jean Van Wetter (Enabel), and Astrid Schomaker (CBD).

Two panel discussions followed, drawing on real-world case studies from implementing partners, governments, and the private sector.

The first panel, moderated by Dr. Janice Weatherley-Singh, Director of WCS EU, examined how investing in nature can stimulate private sector investment and economic benefits. Panelists included Doreen Walsweer-Sore, Expert - Implementation of the Samoa Agreement and the Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Secretariat of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), Jessica Wettstein, Global Lead, Climate and Nature, Barry Callebaut Group, François Toussaint, Chief Impact Officer, Envirium Life Sciences, and Jehanne Fabre, Water and Biodiversity Strategy Director, L’Oréal Group.

The discussion underscored a growing recognition among industry leaders that landscapes and associated value chains are increasingly vulnerable to climate change and biodiversity loss. Drawing on examples ranging from sustainable cocoa production in Cross River, Nigeria, to organic-certified vanilla sourced from the rainforests of Papua New Guinea, panelists highlighted how the resilience and sustainability of value chains are intrinsically linked to the health of the landscapes in which they operate.

Supply chains are not as re-deployable as commonly perceived. Their reliance on place-specific infrastructure, inputs, and ecological conditions makes nature conservation a business imperative rather than a voluntary commitment. Furthermore, the right regulatory environment must not only exist but be actively implemented, alongside appropriate financial incentives, whether through blended finance or other mechanisms. The EU Deforestation Regulation was highlighted as a strong example of the regulatory drive needed to shift private sector investment practices toward nature-positive outcomes.

From left to right: Dr. Janice Weatherley-Singh (WCS EU), Doreen Walsweer-Sore (OACPS), Jessica Wettstein (Barry Callebaut Group), Jehanne Fabre (L’Oréal Group), and François Toussaint (Envirium Life Sciences).

Panelists drew on their own experiences to outline what has proven critical to the success of green economy initiatives combining public and private investment. Long-term commitment to landscapes, rather than short-term project cycles, emerged as a foundational requirement, alongside strong community ownership and local capacity to engage meaningfully. Resilience depends on diversifying revenue sources for communities and reducing their vulnerability to external shocks. Underpinning all of this is robust scientific collaboration, partnerships, data sharing, and the ability to monitor impacts over time.

The second panel, moderated by Flavia Sollazzo, TNC Europe Policy Director, focused on scaling up private sector investment in nature. Panelists Ines Verleye, Co-chair of the Resource Mobilization Contact Group under the CBD and representing the “Finance for Finance Initiative”, Onno van den Heuvel, Global Lead for Nature Finance at UNDP, and Charlotte Waldraff, Sustainable Finance Advisor at GIZ, explored how to move beyond political frameworks to effective implementation at scale.

Mobilizing private capital at a meaningful scale requires the active development of enabling conditions. This includes deploying blended finance and redirecting incentives to align market interests with sustainable practices. Many countries still lack the resources and capacity to implement solutions at scale, making targeted capacity-building a critical next step to unlock greater financing for nature.

From left to right: Flavia Sollazzo (TNC), Charlotte Waldraff (GIZ), Ines Verleye (Belgian Government), and Onno van den Heuvel (UNDP).

The conversation also highlighted the need to better map and screen private sector financial flows and harmful subsidies, and to scale up initiatives that have taken a landscape approach to the sustainable use of natural resources. As one participant observed, there is still significantly more money to be made from destroying biodiversity than from protecting it, a dynamic that the right enabling environments and regulatory incentives must work to reverse.

A key example presented was the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), a global initiative launched by the EU and UNDP in 2012 to address the challenge of financing biodiversity conservation. Now implemented across more than 130 countries, BIOFIN provides technical support to help governments develop and implement comprehensive biodiversity finance strategies.

By leveraging innovative financial mechanisms, improving policy frameworks, and aligning public and private investments with biodiversity objectives, BIOFIN helps countries develop sustainable, context-specific finance solutions. The BIOFIN example was complemented by the “Finance for Finance” (FxF) initiative, which aims to support the implementation of National Biodiversity Finance Plans.

The event closed with an interactive session moderated by Marco Arlaud, Senior Advisor for Global Nature Finance at UNDP, and closing statements by Veronika Hunt Šafránková, Head of the Brussels Office of UNEP.

Veronika Hunt Šafránková (UNEP) is delivering the closing remarks.

The message across the day was clear: biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, sustainable development, and economic prosperity are deeply interconnected and must be advanced through integrated approaches that align environmental, economic, and social objectives.

Investing in nature to power the EU Global Gateway emerged as a key pathway for mobilizing investment on a scale while ensuring it translates into durable, real-economy outcomes. Participants emphasized that integrating nature into infrastructure, investment, and supply-chain decisions will be essential to achieving the ambitions of the EU Global Gateway. This includes strengthening economic resilience and improving local livelihoods while safeguarding the natural systems on which people, health, security, and prosperity depend.