Toward developing a new funding mechanism to support post-2020 biodiversity conservation

Abstract

Background: The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will review the achievement and delivery of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and consider adopting the final draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework with potential amendments. The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will be an important milestone toward the realization of the 2050 vision “living in harmony with nature” and achieving the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. Progress: It is agreed that the financial mechanism for supporting biodiversity conservation is and will continue to be the key to implementing the global biodiversity action plan. However, the current funding gap for biodiversity conservation and restoration to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 is estimated to be at least 50 billion US dollars per year, with an even larger financial gap of more than half a trillion US dollars per year expected in the coming decade. According to the data submitted to the Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM) of the CBD, parties’ direct investment for domestic biodiversity conservation only accounts for a very small fraction of their total gross domestic product (GDP). In 2015, China spent 0.255% of its total GDP in biodiversity conservation, and this percentage was relatively high compared to other countries. As a developing country, China has significantly increased its biodiversity investment in recent years, and in 2019 this amount reached approximately 0.6% of its GDP. The existing biodiversity funding channel is relatively low on diversity, which will make fulfilling biodiversity conservation goals quite challenging. Thus, there is an urgent need to establish a new funding mechanism to assist in the achievement of the post-2020 mission and goals by 2030. It has been suggested that the Convention on Biological Diversity can learn from the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (e.g. green climate fund), and synergize with other relevant environmental conventions, in particular, through nature-based solutions. Perspective: As the host country of COP15, China has the responsibility and ability to facilitate the negotiation for a new funding mechanism at the conference in order to promote the implementation of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. This new biodiversity funding mechanism shall be independent of the existing financial mechanisms with much diverse investment channels, introduce achievement grading mechanisms and link funding to concrete mission, goal and responsibility aiming to improve the efficiency of fund use, and support biodiversity activities in developing countries.