Relying on private financing such as environmental credits as the main means to scale funding of nature could be “a risky strategy”, a top advisor to African biodiversity negotiators said Tuesday.
Speaking on a panel about promoting biodiversity and benefit sharing in the African continent during the 7th BioTrade Congress in Geneva, Pierre du Plessis described himself as “sceptical” about extensively involving the private sector in conservation efforts.
“Without the necessary safeguards and clarity, it sounds to me like a very risky strategy,” he warned. “It could be a supplementary means, but if that is the main plan for how we’re going to save biodiversity, I am very sceptical about it.”
Du Plessis is a technical advisor to the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) on Biodiversity, which brings together all 54 African countries, and the Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) Capacity Development Initiative. He was one of Africa’s chief negotiators during the talks on the 2010 Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing, and has represented Namibia and Africa at the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD).
“It is hard to find a global mechanism that will justify the shareholder value of that financial investment, and a mechanism for returning a steady income to the investors,” he said.
FILLING THE GAP
The need to unlock private resources towards conservation and restoration efforts to bridge the $700-billion biodiversity finance gap was recognised in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) agreement in 2022.
Notably, Target 19 set a goal of mobilising $200 bln per year by 2030, including by leveraging private finance and stimulating “innovative schemes” such as biodiversity offsets and credits.
During Tuesday’s panel discussion, Prudence Galega, the African CBD Negotiators’ group coordinator, said that momentum is building on private financing and investments, as public funding “will never fill the gap”.
“Goal D [of the GBF] seeks to increase biodiversity financing based on assessments that depict a huge gap in terms of the needs and existing financing of biodiversity,” she said.
“Private financing stands as a way to provide the needed support.”
As well, Galega acknowledged that transparency in the market is a critical factor, with disclosures expected to ensure that the private sector complies with requirements for contributing to biodiversity conservation, and the extent to which it shares its benefits.
“There’s a need for developing tools to monitor and track how the private sector uses and invests in biodiversity,” she said.
By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com
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