Financing Biodiversity
> 10 October 07
Kyiv commitment
By 2008, there will be substantially increased public and private financial investments in integrated biodiversity activities in Europe, via partnerships with the finance and business sectors, that have resulted in new investment opportunities and facilities as outlined by the European Biodiversity Resourcing Initiative, taking into account the special needs of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia.
Assessment
The European Biodiversity Resource Initiative was initiated in the PEBLDS framework following the request at the Fourth Ministerial Conference Environment for Europe for the financial sector to increase their involvement in sustainable-development issues. Phase 2 of the work programme from December 2002 through September 2004 aimed at making information, expertise and project-related experience available to potential entrepreneurs in Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia. With a political mandate from the Environment for Europe process and PEBLDS, the European Task Force on Banking, Business and Biodiversity was established to guide this work, and a Biodiversity Financing Action Plan was developed in the framework of the PEBLDS process. Since its first meeting in April 2003, the European Task Force has concentrated on the development of tools to promote sustainable investment related to biodiversity conservation. To this end, the parallel deployment of a Biodiversity Finance Facility and a Biodiversity Technical Assistance Facility has been proposed, and the scoping study for the design of these facilities has been undertaken.
The third phase of the European Biodiversity Resource Initiative is now underway in order to complete the elaboration of the concept of a pan-European initiative for financial resources targeted for biodiversity investment. Beyond the development of instruments for implementation, the work programme included an outreach to entrepreneurial investment strategies and also capacity building for the associated financial intermediaries working at the local level with international funding sources.
In the EU context, some funding opportunities will be made available over the course of the coming years through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, the European Regional Development Fund, the European Fisheries Fund and the LIFE+ regulation. It should also be noted that indirect or secondary sources of funding also contribute to biodiversity conservation to some extent, such as climate-change mitigation measures, payments for ecosystem services through tourism, and the compensation measures that project developers are obliged to take at their own cost if developments have a negative impact on a Natura 2000 site.
As from 2007, funding for biodiversity and nature conservation will be mainstreamed into the major EU sectoral funds. Comprehensive opportunities to co-fund Natura 2000 costs have been provided in the funding regulation for 2007–2013 and guidelines and training have been provided to assist Member States in applying for funds. An IT Tool on financing Natura 2000 is being developed to assist potential beneficiaries to check how individual measures for Natura 2000 could possibly be funded by the seven major EU sources. Concerns are, however, expressed about poor uptake of funding opportunities in different Member States but it is too early to assess this. The recently adopted LIFE+ programme (2007–2013) will provide additional possibilities to finance specific innovative or demonstration projects that contribute to the implementation of the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Action Plan. While this approach is in principle a positive development, its future effectiveness is uncertain and there are concerns about the extent to which funds will be provided to biodiversity projects when they have to compete with sectoral and economic development needs.
If the 2010 target is to be met, the involvement of both private and public-sector funders will be needed. The EC is also in the process of increasing its efforts to integrate biodiversity into business activities and to address the current constraints. The main challenge is to increase the interest of sponsors in financing the integration of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into key sectors, such as agriculture and territorial development, and also into the wide range of programmes, projects and research activities. A further challenge is the implementation of various bodies of EU legislation such as the Habitats Directive, the Liability Directive and the Water Framework Directive, which requires developers to fund compensation and mitigation measures to obtain a permit to carry out their developments. The potential for this is especially significant under the Water Framework Directive which requires EU Member States to recover the costs of water management, including the environmental and resource costs, on all the sectors which impact on and benefit from water management.
About this page
This document is part of the Countdown 2010 Readiness Assessment 2007. Download the entire study in English or Russian or read the chapters online.
Pan-European Progress Towards Achieving the 2010 Biodiversity Target
Introduction
Forests and Biodiversity
Agriculture and Biodiversity
The Pan-European Ecological Network
Invasive Alien Species
Financing Biodiversity
Biodiversity Monitoring and Indicators
Public Participation and Awareness
Additional Challenges
Annex 1: Status and trends of 2010 indicators
Annex 2: C2010 Readiness Assessment Questionnaire
Annex 3: Online Survey on the 2010 Biodiversity Target
Annex 4: Recommendations for high nature value farmland
Annex 5: SEBI2010 Indicators
