‘A message of hope’: 6 European countries pledge €130 million to protect biodiversity

Six European countries have pledged new money to the world’s foremost biodiversity fund, which gained €200 million yesterday. 

Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway and the UK announced fresh funding at the UN biodiversity summit, COP16, currently taking place in Colombia.

The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) was one of the key outcomes of the Kunming-Montreal Agreement struck at the previous COP15 in 2022. 

The UK, Germany, Spain and Luxembourg previously contributed to the GBFF after it was launched last year. European countries now make up eight of the fund’s 12 donors, which also include Canada, Japan, New Zealand and - in an unusual show of leadership from a sub-national government - Québec.

“This is about money and morale. A message of hope and global solidarity,” Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity said at the conference in Cali, thanking donors for stepping forward.

“We know that the fund is needed now more than ever. We need it to be capitalised to permit resources to flow urgently to the national implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.”

The GBFF gets cash to countries and communities working to conserve, restore and ensure the long-term health of wild species and ecosystems.

Hosted by the Global Environment Facility, it gathers contributions from all sources, including public, private and philanthropies. 

In June 2024, the GBFF approved the fund’s first projects in Brazil, Fiji, Gabon and Mexico. The Mexico project, for example, will bolster national protected areas, in service of the GBFF’s ‘30x30’ goal to protect 30 per cent of the planet by 2030.

In total, 24 developing countries are currently accessing support from the fund, with another 18