Brazzaville, 29 September 2026— The Government of the Republic of Congo, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), launched the UNDP Biodiversity Finance Initiative (UNDP BIOFIN) at a national workshop bringing together government ministries, financial institutions, civil society, academia and development partners.
The initiative will help the country assess current biodiversity spending, estimate the funding needed to meet its national goals and develop a Biodiversity Finance Plan. The plan will identify ways to use existing resources more effectively and mobilize additional finance for nature.
The Republic of the Congo’s forests, peatlands, wetlands and coastal ecosystems support livelihoods and economic activity while providing habitats for biodiversity of global importance. Protecting them requires sustained investment alongside efforts to address pressures such as deforestation, poaching and pollution.
Arlette Soudan-Nonault, Minister of the Environment, Sustainable Development and the Congo Basin, described the country’s biodiversity as a source of opportunity. The government aims to make it “a true pillar of sustainable development” and view it as “an area for investment, innovation, and job creation,” she said.
Adama-Dian Barry, UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Congo, emphasized that the work goes beyond raising additional funds. “It is about better understanding how much we are currently spending on biodiversity, what our actual needs are, what the funding gap is,” she said, as well as improving the use of available resources and finding new sources of finance.
UNDP BIOFIN will support a Policy and Institutional Review, a Biodiversity Expenditure Review and a Biodiversity Financial Needs Assessment. Together, these assessments will inform the country’s Biodiversity Finance Plan and help identify finance solutions suited to national priorities.
The work supports the Republic of the Congo’s biodiversity commitments and contributes to Target 19 of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which calls for increased financial resources for biodiversity from public and private sources.
