Two bird conservation groups and the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) are seeking to raise $3-5 billion over the next decade, including through a new bond, to launch more than 30 projects to reverse the decline of migratory birds in the Americas.

BirdLife International, US-based National Audubon Society, and CAF announced their intention to launch the Americas Flyway Initiative (AFI) on the sidelines of last year’s biodiversity COP in Montreal, but only now are the specifics of the initiative emerging.

“Now that the building blocks of the programme are coming together we are piloting the approach in a small portfolio of sites and landscapes in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica,” acting BirdLife International CEO Martin Harper told Carbon Pulse.

“These will be our pilot sites where we will identify a series of actions to mainstream the needs of birds into the design of projects – for example for agriculture, energy, and infrastructure.”

In the longer term, AFI will add 3-4 projects annually over a 10-year period to cover all the countries of Latin America.

The initiative was born last year after data published in the State of the World’s Birds showed that North America currently has 3 billion fewer birds than in 1970, with a 30% decline in the continent’s breeding birds. For some species, the decline is bigger than 90%.

“This massive loss of birds is telling us that things are going seriously wrong. If birds are in trouble, the rest of biodiversity is in trouble, threatening our own species’ survival,” said Harper.

BirdLife and National Audobon Society have mapped over 1,000 important sites for migratory birds across the Americas flyways, and will be prioritising the sites considered crucial for the species whose populations are in trouble, according to Harper.

To underpin the initiative, they are developing playbooks – ‘how to’ guides – for implementing nature-based climate solutions and green infrastructure, and are planning a Flyway Health Index to measure the impact of investments in flyway conservation to check that they have the desired impact, according to Harper.

BEARING BONDS

In order to fund the massive undertaking the initiative is considering a number of approaches, with a special Flyway Bond topping the list.

The initiative has contracted Seoul-based Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to help structure a financial instrument that is expected to be presented to the consortium in June next year, Ian Davidson, BirdLife International’s regional director in the Americas, told Carbon Pulse.

CAF will issue the bond, with a likely initial offering of $150 million.

Similar to the World Bank’s rhino bond, it will be predicated on the successful implementation of a portfolio of projects, starting with three to five, then growing to a maximum of 30 over 10 years, according to Davidson.

It will have discrete and measurable KPIs at priority sites for Flyway species, where CAF will be making investments in nature-based solutions and green infrastructure, he added.

Other financial approaches are being weighed as well, said CEO Harper.

“It is possible that some of these sites will benefit from carbon financing, but it is a bit too early to say. We have experience of using carbon finance in other parts of the world,” he said.

“There are no current plans to develop biodiversity credits through this work, but we have not ruled it out.”

ASIAN EXAMPLE

AFI is partially based on a 2021 foundation launched by BirdLife International, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the East Asian Australasian Flyway partnership, which is carrying out similar work on the other side of the world.

That partnership might test fly another financing mechanism that is under consideration.

“We are working at the global level to establish a civil society granting mechanism to support the engagement of local communities and Indigenous peoples in the work at priority sites to improve livelihoods and engage local peoples in flyway conservation,” said Harper.

“Our ambition will be global, but we are likely to start in Asia with the support of the Asian Development Bank, and then hopefully extend it to the Americas and around the world.”

While the current constellation of the Asian Australasian partnership is relatively new, its work dates back to 2006 and more than 150 projects have been initiated across Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam.

Governments are playing a significant role in that initiative, and Harper expected that to over time become the case for the AFI as well.

“There are many parallels between the two initiatives and yes, we would expect governments to play a big role in helping to nominate sites for investment hopefully working alongside our civil society partners. Both initiatives [will] offer a mix of concessionary loans and civil society grants,” he told Carbon Pulse.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com

** Click here to sign up to our biweekly biodiversity newsletter **