Public financial contribution to international biodiversity of the Netherlands

Efforts of the Netherlands to scale-up international biodiversity finance

The world is witnessing a steady loss of biodiversity, which has profound consequences for human well-being. This is the main conclusion of the Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which was released in May 2019. The IPBES-report concludes that developing countries are hit hardest by the biodiversity crisis, referring to the effects that the decline of nature has on the poorest and most vulnerable people worldwide.

One of the policy responses of the Netherlands is to increase its financial contribution to international biodiversity in developing countries. Trinomics has supported the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs with an analysis of the current public finance for international biodiversity.

An overview of these figures is necessary for the development of ambitious yet realistic pathways to scale-up biodiversity finance in 2020 and beyond. The results of this report will also be used for the reporting of the Netherlands to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which requires developed countries to report on their public funding for international biodiversity in ODA-eligible countries. We base our assessment on the OECD DAC Rio Markers to analyse the total volume of Dutch public funding for international biodiversity.

As part of this assessment, we give recommendations to scale-up biodiversity finance in 2020 and beyond. For 2020, it is recommended for the Netherlands to focus on existing mechanisms and the current project portfolio. Regarding the pathways beyond 2020, recommendations refer to alternative mechanisms to scale-up biodiversity finance, such as the possibilities for mobilisation of private finance.