Action on biodiversityCompanies & Supply chainsGreen finance

Supporting the IDFB in connecting finance and biodiversity

By March 2, 2022 No Comments

How can we address the unprecedented losses to biodiversity currently experienced around the globe, in the face of a funding gap to the tune of up to US$824 billion a year?

The Dutch government’s Interface Dialogue Finance and Biodiversity (IDFB) platform aims to bring together relevant Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and financial institutions to exchange learnings and encourage dialogue across ministries and sectors to address this issue. In collaboration with the CBD secretariat and the United Kingdom, Nature^Squared helps to facilitate discussion and mobilization of Parties to integrate biodiversity considerations into financial decision-making. The interface aims at increasing financial institutions’ understandings of their biodiversity impacts and dependencies through the sharing of best practices, experiences, policy development, tools, and data, so as to mobilize much needed finance to minimize biodiversity losses. Furthermore, the platform helps institutions and ministers to exchange knowledge on managing and integrating biodiversity losses in their financial decision-making, in order to align finance with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

The IDFB convenes in an informal online format, where government ministers and representatives from financial institutions can gather to discuss how to mobilize more finance for biodiversity, and exchange their experiences and lessons learned with one another. Different speakers present and share insights into different biodiversity finance initiatives at each session, and attendees share relevant research, insights, and resources with each other. The IDFB provides an important bridge for connecting peers with each other to facilitate knowledge sharing and learning, and now offers a helpline for Parties seeking access to more knowledge and tools for aligning finance and biodiversity.