$5 billion of funding announced by philanthropists for biodiversity restoration and conservation75 financial institutions representing EUR 12 trillion in asset commit to end investments harmful to nature
23 September 2021
In a move described by WWF as a game-changer that will help safeguard humanity, prevent pandemics and create essential
new jobs, massive new funding for biodiversity and commitments to stop harmful investments was announced yesterday at a
high-level event on the margins of the UN General Assembly. The announcement represents the biggest-ever philanthropic
commitment to nature conservation.
The event, Transformative Action for Nature and People, brought together leaders from across the world to showcase and announce actions to reverse biodiversity loss and
secure a nature-positive world by 2030. More than 20 Heads of State and Governments were joined by leading funders, NGOs and indigenous voices to
drive forward momentum for nature and people.
The $5 billion pledge over the next 10 years is to ensure 30% of the planet is protected and preserved in the most
important places for biodiversity by 2030. The funds will be used to focus on supporting the creation, expansion,
management and monitoring of protected and conserved areas of land, inland water and sea, working with Indigenous
Peoples, local communities, civil society and governments. This commitment is being made jointly by Arcadia, one of the
UK's largest philanthropic foundations; the Bezos Earth Fund; Bloomberg Philanthropies; Gordon and Betty Moore
Foundation; Nia Tero; Rainforest Trust ($500 million); Re:wild; Wyss Foundation ($500 million); and the Rob and Melani
Walton Foundation. The event also included a transformational announcement of the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge under which 75 financial institutions from around the globe - worth a collective 12 trillion Euros in assets - will
commit to protecting and restoring biodiversity through their finance activities and investments.***
‘Today's announcements show that the world is converging around the need to reverse the loss of nature and is beginning
to mobilise funds at scale, making a promising move towards closing the $700 billion per year funding gap** to reverse
nature loss. Adopting a clear nature-positive global goal will drive the repurposing of public and private funding to
support sustainable practices in the sectors that today are driving nature and biodiversity loss, like agriculture,
fishing, infrastructures. It is possible and it also makes economic sense, as today we know that the cost of inaction
will be huge and tragic. This is not only essential for nature: it will safeguard humanity, help prevent pandemics and
create essential new jobs’. - Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International Nature is currently declining at rates unseen in human history, with up to one million species threatened by extinction. Against the backdrop of worsening environmental crises,
leaders from the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature, High Ambition Coalition for nature and people, and the Global Ocean Alliance reaffirmed their commitment to reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and were joined by other mega-biodiverse countries to
showcase transformative actions to secure a nature-positive world.
Recent research from WWF revealed that 39 million jobs could be created if governments reallocated the $500 billion governments spent on harmful subsidies
every year to employment which is nature-positive.
One of the showcased actions at the event included the new 930,000 hectare Mura-Drava-Danube Biosphere Reserve, the first 5-country biosphere reserve in the world, stretching over Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia
declared by UNESCO this month.
‘We need large-scale, transformative change to address the climate and biodiversity crises that we are facing in Central
and Eastern Europe and beyond -- commitments at the scale of the Mura-Drava-Danube Biosphere Reserve, the world's first
5-country biosphere reserve and Europe's largest riverine protected area’. - Andreas Beckmann, Regional CEO, WWF Central and Eastern Europe Other positive examples included plans by indigenous
conservation leaders from Canada to create six new Indigenous-led Protected Areas; the Green Climate Fund is seeking to
expand its investments to restore ecosystems while creating jobs across developing countries; Costa Rica expanding their
Cocos Island National Park to help achieve the protection of 30% of their ocean; Nigeria establishing 10 new national
parks; and Belgium increasing its global climate funding commitment by 30% from 70 million to 100 million Euros annually
and transitioning to sustainable food systems.
‘Our world must not only become more equitable and carbon neutral, but by 2030, it must also become nature positive -
and multiple governments and other actors are already supporting this goal’, said Marco Lambertini, Director General, WWF International. ‘Today’s outcome will take us a big and necessary step closer to securing a nature-positive world through
transformative actions and funding that will be key to securing an ambitious agreement which will ensure there is more
nature in the world in 2030 than there was at the start of the decade. It’s time to focus on what’s necessary, not only
what is politically negotiable. Today's show of leadership is a step in that direction’.
World leaders, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Costa Rican President Carlos
Alvarado Quesada, Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez, and Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria, all make
contributions to the event, which was held in New York and virtually.