Nature, underpinned by biologically diverse ecosystems, plays a critical role for national economies and people's livelihoods and health. It is also a key component of our response to climate change mitigation, resilience, and adaptation. More than half of the world's GDP is generated in industries that depend on nature and its services, yet this economic activity is causing unprecedented biodiversity loss, risking livelihoods, economies, and meeting climate goals.
There is a growing recognition of the need to transition to sustainable business models that protect biodiversity and ecosystem services. Finance and innovative financial solutions are key to supporting this transition; and biodiversity finance has emerged as a fast-growing area in green finance with increased interest from investors, financial institutions, and issuers globally. Currently, however, there is no guidance in the market on project eligibility criteria for biodiversity finance.
To address this gap, IFC has developed a Biodiversity Finance Reference Guide. This guide builds the Green Bond Principles and the Green Loan Principles and provides an indicative list of investment projects, activities, and components that help protect, maintain, or enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services, as well as promote the sustainable management of natural resources. Recent updates to the guide also map indicative investment activities to the targets in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (Global Biodiversity Framework).
This guide benefited from inputs from the public and private sector, academia, international organizations, civil society representatives, and individuals during a public comment period from June 15 to July 15, 2022. IFC also partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Society for an external expert review. Their contributions have informed the many changes incorporated in the November 2022 version of the guide.
Since the initial publication of the Biodiversity Finance Reference Guide, the landmark agreement on global action on nature, the Global Biodiversity Framework, was reached in December 2022. Following its adoption, IFC consulted with the United Nations Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (UN SCBD) to prepare the May 2023 update of the guide. The update includes mapping of the indicative investment activities listed in Annex I of the guide to the targets in the Global Biodiversity Framework as well as further details of the goals and targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework in Annex II.
IFC's intention is to contribute to the growth of the biodiversity finance market globally. This guide is primarily intended to provide a structured approach for investors and financiers to identify eligible use of proceeds that constitute biodiversity finance. Companies can use it to identify opportunities to address the key drivers of biodiversity loss in their production practices, to integrate nature-based solutions into their operations, or to develop nature conservation activities. The guide can also be used by policymakers to design biodiversity finance taxonomies. We expect this document to evolve over time as the market for biodiversity finance develops and matures.
Thank you for choosing to download the file. Please click the button below to access the file.