Observing the GBF Fund Council 3rd Meeting

CBD Women's Caucus — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:43:06 +0000

By Edda Fernandez, Senior Advisor Policy at AVAAZ. Representative of the CBD Women’s Caucus to the GBF Fund Council.

The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) was launched at the Seventh GEF Assembly in Vancouver, Canada, in August 2023, in response to decisions made at CBD COP15. Its goal is to increase financing for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and strengthen national-level biodiversity management, planning, policy, governance, and finance, as outlined by the GEF. The World Bank serves as the fund’s trustee, while the GBF Fund Council is responsible for deciding which projects will receive support.

As of November 2024, 12 countries and subnational contributors—Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, the Province of Québec, Spain, and the UK—had pledged $383 million USD to the GBFF. By January 28, 2025, the World Bank reported a balance of $326.8 million USD, with contributors now including Canada, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, Spain, Luxembourg, France, and Japan. The World Bank financial report is regularly updated [Link].

The GBF highlights the need for $200 billion USD annually to close the biodiversity finance gap (GBF Target 19). However, the lack of sufficient financial resources in the GBFF remains a major concern. A concerning reality is that despite pledges from developed countries to support biodiversity action, they have yet to provide adequate financial backing for the full implementation of the GBF.

GBFF Council Meeting (December 20, 2024)

The third meeting of the GBFF Council was held virtually on December 20, 2024, lasting only a few hours. During this meeting, 18 projects to be supported by the GBFF were approved. Edda Fernández and Priyanka Pandey, representing the CBD Women’s Caucus, participated, and observers were granted the opportunity to speak.

As in previous meetings, representatives from Women, Youth, Indigenous Peoples, and Local Communities spoke in unison. This time, the Youth representative delivered the statement. Our main message was the need to be actively involved in the project review process from the very beginning, rather than merely serving as passive observers. We again called for changes to the process, ensuring it aligns with the mandates of the GBF and several CBD COP decisions. The GEF Secretariat took note of our requests.

Advocacy for Change

The CBD Women’s Caucus continues to advocate for GEF processes to be aligned with the mandates of the CBD COP, ensuring meaningful participation from women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities in both biodiversity conservation and sustainable use decisions, as well as in funding allocations. We will persist in pushing for greater inclusivity and gender-responsiveness within the GEF.

The GBFF Council is Party-led, and its constituencies are structured similarly to those of the GEF Council. For more information, see [Link].

Edda Fernández emphasized, «As representatives of our global constituencies, we speak on behalf of a community closely monitoring the GEF and GBFF processes. We demand reforms to ensure fairness, efficiency, and equity in resource allocation, as well as a more balanced governance structure. Unfortunately, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, and youth continue to lack a meaningful voice in decisions about who and what to fund.»

Next Steps

The CBD Women’s Caucus will continue advocating for the full, equitable, inclusive, and gender-responsive participation of women in decision-making, particularly regarding biodiversity finance.

It is crucial for the Caucus to be involved in evaluating the projects presented to be supported by the GBFF to ensure alignment with the Gender Plan of Action adopted at COP 15 (decision 15/11).

*Disclaimer**: The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position or opinions of the CBD Women’s Caucus.*

La entrada Observing the GBF Fund Council 3rd Meeting se publicó primero en CBD Women's Caucus.

Decolonise Biodiversity Finance: A Conversation from a Human Rights Lens

c1652146 — Sat, 28 Dec 2024 20:03:28 +0000

In the frame of CBD COP16, at the GEF Partnership Pavilion, the CBD Women’s Caucus, Global Youth Biodiversity Network, and the Resource Mobilization Working Group within the IIFB hosted the thought-provoking session Decolonise Biodiversity Finance: A Conversation from a Human Rights Lens. This event brought together experts and advocates to explore how economic resources for nature conservation and its associated financial mechanisms can be restructured to support equitable and just biodiversity policy and action while centering human rights mandates.

The session featured three distinguished speakers: Ms. Amelia Arreguín-Prado, Coordinator of the CBD Women’s Caucus; Mr. Heitor Dellasta, Policy Co-Coordinator of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network; and Mr. Ramson Karmushu, a member of the Resource Mobilization Working Group within the IIFB. Moderating the conversation was Ms. June Rubis from the ICCA Consortium.

Highlights from the floor

Ms. Arreguín-Prado underscored the urgency of shifting away from extractivist economic systems that exploit nature, advocating for financial mechanisms rooted in human rights and harmony with nature. She highlighted the lack of transparency and accountability in current biodiversity financing, noting that funds often fail to reach grassroots levels. Drawing from her experience, she called for aligning financial flows with human rights obligations and emphasized the importance of trust-based, unrestricted, and flexible funding models to support women, Indigenous peoples, local communities, and youth.

Mr. Dellasta critiqued the commodification of nature in financial mechanisms, which often fail to address the complexity of ecosystems and local communities’ realities. He advocated for non-market-based approaches and Mother Earth-centric values, emphasizing the need to support governance structures and provide direct funding to grassroots organizations. He also highlighted the harmful impact of current economic systems, which channel resources into activities detrimental to biodiversity, urging reforms to prioritize equity, stewardship, and justice.

Mr. Karmushu focused on the challenges Indigenous peoples face in accessing biodiversity financing, including land rights violations and biased financial allocations. He called for flexible, consistent funding mechanisms tailored to Indigenous contexts, such as the inclusion of Indigenous governance in financial decision-making. Highlighting the inefficiencies of intermediaries, he advocated for direct financing to ensure resources reach the ground and address community needs, urging a shift from aspirational goals to actionable realities.

Key Takeaways

Centering Human Rights in Biodiversity Finance: All biodiversity related funding flows and financial mechanisms must prioritise human rights, ensuring equitable access and meaningful participation for Indigenous peoples, local communities, women, and youth.
Rethinking Financial Models: There is an urgent need to move away from commodified, market-driven approaches and adopt non-market, Mother Earth-centric financing that values stewardship and relational connections to nature.
Improving Transparency and Accountability: Mechanisms must be reformed to track and evaluate the impact of financial flows, ensuring funds genuinely reach and benefit grassroots efforts.
Direct and Flexible Financing: Participants highlighted the importance of direct funding mechanisms that reduce bureaucratic barriers and address the unique needs of local communities, particularly in vulnerable ecosystems.
Inclusive Governance: Integrating Indigenous governance and diverse stakeholder perspectives into financial decision-making processes is key to achieving more equitable and sustainable outcomes.

The session underscored the need to decolonise biodiversity finance by aligning financial mechanisms with human rights, equity, and ecological integrity. As COP16 progresses, the voices of Indigenous peoples, local communities, women, and youth must remain central to ensuring biodiversity financing supports those who are most closely connected to and dependent on nature.

Watch the full session here:

La entrada Decolonise Biodiversity Finance: A Conversation from a Human Rights Lens se publicó primero en CBD Women's Caucus.

biodiversity finance archivos - CBD Women's Caucus