Serbia
Serbia faces a significant gap between the resources available for biodiversity and the investment required to achieve its conservation priorities. Biodiversity finance currently relies largely on public budgets and international project funding, while structural challenges limit the effectiveness of domestic financing. Environmental fees are collected but are not systematically earmarked for biodiversity, and subsidies and incentives in sectors such as agriculture and energy can contribute to pressures on nature.
Preliminary findings from the Financial Needs Assessment estimate a biodiversity financing gap of approximately US$101.5 million for 2026–2030, with projected funding expected to cover around 57% of the resources required to achieve national biodiversity targets. Closing this gap will require both additional finance and reforms that improve how existing public resources, revenues and incentives contribute to biodiversity.
UNDP BIOFIN is supporting Serbia to build an evidence-based approach to these challenges. Through the Policy and Institutional Review, Biodiversity Expenditure Review and Financial Needs Assessment, the initiative has established a baseline of biodiversity-related financial flows, assessed financing needs and identified opportunities to improve the effectiveness and alignment of biodiversity finance.
is work is informing Serbia’s Biodiversity Finance Plan and a preliminary portfolio of 15 finance solutions. Priorities include reforming biodiversity-harmful subsidies, improving the management and reinvestment of environmental revenues, strengthening financing for protected areas and exploring mechanisms such as Payments for Ecosystem Services. Together, these measures aim to improve the use of existing resources and mobilize additional public and private finance for Serbia’s biodiversity priorities.
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Finance solutions
Serbia’s Biodiversity Finance Plan has identified 15 preliminary finance solutions, with six prioritized for initial development. The priority solutions focus on improving the effectiveness and transparency of existing financial flows, reforming incentives that can harm biodiversity, and developing mechanisms that better reward conservation.
1. Biodiversity Budget Tagging and Classification
Establish a systematic mechanism within the national budget to identify, classify and track biodiversity-related public expenditure. This will strengthen fiscal transparency and provide better evidence for planning and allocating biodiversity finance.
Stage: Designing
2. Repurposing Harmful Subsidies and Misaligned Public Expenditure
Assess and gradually reform subsidies and other public expenditures that contribute to biodiversity loss, particularly in sectors such as agriculture, energy and forestry, and redirect incentives towards more biodiversity-positive and sustainable practices.
Stage: Designing
3. Ecological Fiscal Transfers to Local Governments
Develop a fiscal transfer mechanism that rewards local governments for biodiversity conservation, using criteria such as protected-area coverage and ecological performance to inform the allocation of central government resources.
Stage: Designing
4. Protected Areas Financing Reform
Strengthen and diversify financing for protected areas through mechanisms such as entrance and tourism fees and sustainable commercial activities, while exploring opportunities for revenues to be retained and reinvested in conservation and protected-area management.
Stage: Designing
5. Reform of Environmental Fees and Fines
Strengthen environmental fees and fines in line with the polluter-pays principle and explore mechanisms to improve the transparency and reinvestment of resulting revenues in environmental and biodiversity priorities, including through a functional Green Fund.
Stage: Designing / Considering
6. Payments for Ecosystem Services
Develop and pilot Payments for Ecosystem Services approaches that reward land and resource managers for maintaining ecosystems that provide benefits such as clean water, soil protection and other ecosystem services. Initial work will include economic valuation in selected pilot areas to inform future PES schemes.
Stage: Designing / Piloting
Key results
Building Serbia’s Biodiversity Finance Evidence Base
Draft versions of the Policy and Institutional Review, Biodiversity Expenditure Review and Financial Needs Assessment have been developed, providing a consolidated evidence base on biodiversity-related policies, expenditure, financing needs and institutional arrangements.
Quantifying the Biodiversity Financing Gap
The draft Financial Needs Assessment estimates a financing gap of approximately US$101.5 million for 2026–2030, with projected resources expected to cover around 57% of the financing required to achieve national biodiversity priorities.
Connecting Biodiversity Finance with National Planning
Findings from the BIOFIN assessments have informed the development of Serbia’s Nature Protection Programme 2026–2031, which constitutes the country’s NBSAP and is aligned with the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The Programme is currently undergoing consultation.
Identifying and Prioritizing Finance Solutions
Serbia’s Biodiversity Finance Plan has identified a preliminary portfolio of 15 finance solutions, with six prioritized for initial development. These address biodiversity expenditure tracking, harmful subsidies, ecological fiscal transfers, protected-area finance, environmental fees and fines, and Payments for Ecosystem Services.
Advancing New Approaches to Biodiversity Finance
In addition to public-finance reforms, the BIOFIN process is exploring mechanisms that could diversify biodiversity finance, including Payments for Ecosystem Services, green credit lines, a conservation trust fund and nature-linked bonds. Their feasibility and potential application will be further assessed through the BFP process..