Country Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recently called for an assessment on innovative financial mechanisms, in order to develop and discuss policy options during the next COP in October.
The CBD Secretariat has acted quickly by convening an international workshop on innovative financing mechanisms in Bonn, Germany, on 27–29 January, in cooperation with The Economics of the Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), an international initiative studying the economics of biodiversity loss at the global level. The workshop witnessed widespread participation by experts in the areas of resource mobilization and innovative finance and the GM was invited in its capacity as a financial mechanism of the UNCCD, dealing with similar issues.
As per the CBD resource mobilization strategy, participants explored options related to the following financial mechanisms:
- payment for ecosystems services (PES);
- biodiversity offset mechanisms;
- environmental fiscal reform;
- innovative financing mechanisms such as markets for green products, business-biodiversity partnerships and new forms of charity;
- climate change funding and biodiversity; and
- new and innovative sources of international development finance, including a proposal for a Green Development Mechanism.
The UNCCD - like its sister convention, the CBD - requests for innovative financing sources and mechanisms to be explored, with its 10-Year Strategy (2010-2018) calling on the GM to play a lead role in this regard. Accordingly, the GM promotes similar initiatives in the context of broader country based resource mobilization strategies, and develops tools and methodologies at the international level.
In a recent initiative, the GM and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) jointly identified 14 financing mechanisms that provide incentives to land users to invest in sustainable land management (SLM) practices. A methodology – currently being piloted in Africa and Latin America - has also been developed to determine the applicability of these financing mechanisms according to country context.
In addition, work by the GM on the valuation of land could be taken into account in developing a comprehensive methodology that values not only land, but also other ecosystems, natural resources and, in particular, biodiversity. Common models could be developed and applied to the different issues involved in environmental degradation.
The GM shared its knowledge and experience in the area of innovative finance during the workshop and Mr Simone Quatrini, GM’s Coordinator for the Policy and Investment Analysis Programme, chaired the discussion on environmental fiscal reform. Participants agreed that synergies and joint work between the Rio Conventions in the area of innovative finance is critical given the close relationship between biological diversity conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation and combating desertification.
The three Rio Conventions (Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification) deal with closely interlinked issues, which are intertwined with each other in multiple causal chains.
Maximizing synergies among these policy processes is therefore essential, in order to lay the foundations for a broad financial debate during the early phases of the world’s economic recovery, in the aftermath of the Copenhagen negotiations and in the lead up to the CBD COP in Japan.
For more information:
Mr Simone Quatrini, Coordinator, Policy & Investment Analysis
Tel. +39 06 5459 2154
s.quatrini (at) global-mechanism.org
Ms Camilla Nordheim-Larsen, Financial Strategy Officer
Tel. +39 06 5459 2061
c.nordheim-larsen (at) global-mechanism.org
Ms Paule Herodote, Civil Society Investments Advisor
Tel. +39 06 5459 2760
p.herodote (at) global-mechanism.org
