Vancouver, Canada: In the face of escalating impacts of the world’s nature and climate crises, including record-breaking temperatures and wildfires, WWF urges developed countries to commit greater funds to support developing countries’ conservation efforts in systems and places where they will have the greatest impact for people and nature.
WWF, the world’s largest conservation organisation, warns that without urgent funding to support action on the frontline of the biodiversity crisis, the world risks hitting critical tipping points where the natural world will no longer be able to sustain us or regulate our climate.
The warning comes as world representatives meet this week at the 7th Assembly of the Global Environment Facility1 (GEF), in Vancouver, Canada, where they will launch the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBF Fund), a new source of funding for protecting species and ecosystems globally.
WWF joins BirdLife International, Campaign for Nature, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and The Pew Charitable Trusts in today publishing an open letter calling for donor countries to arrive at the GEF Assembly ready to announce ambitious contributions to the GBF Fund, in line with their promises at the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference, where the Fund was conceived.
The open letter stresses that the launch of the Fund is a critical moment to “jump-start resource mobilisation for the immediate implementation of the new global biodiversity framework. It cannot be missed. A lack of financial support for the GBF Fund would risk undermining the consensus agreement from COP15 and jeopardising the implementation of the agreement as a whole.”
Agreement to establish a new Fund was one of the pivotal breakthroughs that enabled developed and developing countries to forge consensus on an ambitious new global biodiversity agreement at the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference in December last year. The historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), adopted in Montreal, Canada, commits the world to reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and has been hailed as nature’s equivalent of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Failure by developed countries to announce new international funding for biodiversity action could potentially worsen the trust deficit between developed and developing countries. To-date, no funding commitments have been made to the GBF Fund by donor countries ahead of its launch in Vancouver.
Nonetheless, the GBF Fund provides a new channel through which developed countries can deliver on funding for nature - under Target 19 of the KMGBF, countries have to generate at least US$200 billion per year by 2030 for biodiversity, with international financial resources to developing countries amounting to $20 billion USD per year by 2025 and $30 billion USD per year by 2030.
Lin Li, Senior Director of Global Policy and Advocacy at WWF International said: “With the world currently experiencing record-breaking heatwaves and the accelerating destruction of nature, it is critical that developed countries step up and deliver on their promises to provide funding to the communities and places on the frontline of the biodiversity crisis and address systemic changes that are urgently needed. It is both a moral responsibility and an investment in everyone’s future. At the GEF Assembly in Vancouver, donor countries must announce new international biodiversity finance to support the conservation efforts of developing countries. This will send an important political signal while kick starting scaled up financing from all sources. With the planet teetering on critical climate and nature tipping points, there can be no delay or ambivalence.”
Notes to Editors
1 The GEF Assembly is scheduled to take place 22-26 August in Vancouver, Canada. It brings together the world’s governments, as well as major financial institutions, businesses, civil society and Indigenous Peoples to discuss solutions to ensure a healthy planet and healthy people.
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About WWF
WWF is an independent conservation organisation, with over 30 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. Visit www.panda.org/news for the latest news and media resources and follow us on Twitter @WWF_media.
