(Updates with details of a Bezos Earth Fund investment in the Amazon region)
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council has reached an agreement on the design of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), leaving everything set for the fund to be formally launched at the GEF Assembly in Canada in August.
“The creation of this biodiversity fund is a game-changer for countries’ ability to protect, restore, and ensure the sustainable use of nature,” GEF CEO and Chairperson Carlos Manuel Rodriguez said in an announcement late Thursday.
“I am thrilled to see this rapid progress just six months after the historic agreement for biodiversity reached in Montreal.”
The specifics of how the fund will work have yet to trickle into the public, but it will draw from public, private, and philanthropic funding sources to help countries implement the Global Biodiversity Framework, set out national targets and action plans, and put in place efforts to meet those goals.
“Achieving the goals and targets of the Framework is hugely ambitious. But it is also necessary. It’s necessary to maintain the web of life on planet Earth. It’s also an essential part of climate action. And it’s a fundamental prerequisite to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” said David Cooper, acting executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
“The new fund will provide an opportunity to receive funding from all sources and to quickly disburse them through streamlined procedures, and with enhanced access for Indigenous Peoples and local communities.”
The GEF Assembly in Vancouver, which kicks off on Aug. 22, will be attended by a wide range of national ministers, and the fund will formally launch at the event.
Meanwhile, the GEF Council meeting in Brasilia also decided that GEF will be part of the funding mechanism for the High Seas Treaty that was adopted earlier this year, which provides a framework for protecting marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Earlier this week, the GEF Council approved a $1.4-billion spending package for the period to 2026 on biodiversity, climate change, and pollution – the biggest budget in the organisation’s history that it expected to also unlock $5 bln in spending from others.
On the sidelines of the Council’s launch of the package in Brasilia, the Bezos Earth Fund awarded $50 mln in grants to support conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon, the fund announced on Friday.
The grants included $30.9 mln to support the creation of over 8 mln hectares of new protected and conserved areas and to improve the protection of 60 mln hectares of tropical forests in northern Amazon regions.
Some $5 mln was also given to support fire prevention activities, $6 mln to non-profit iCS to provide information for local leaders on building forest-protecting economies, with the total also including a previously-announced $9.7 mln to green group EDF and others to help support local leaders on engaging in the carbon market.
By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com
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