Union Government held first national stakeholder consultation on BIOFIN project

BIOFIN: Biodiversity Finance Initiative

The abbreviation BIOFIN was in news in the third week of January 2016 as the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change held the first national stakeholder consultation meeting on the BIOFIN (Biodiversity Finance Initiative).

The meeting was organized to understand the BIOFIN project and to seek professional inputs from experts of various fields in strengthening the biodiversity conservation efforts in the country.

BIOFIN is a global partnership seeking to address the biodiversity finance challenge in a comprehensive manner. Its purpose is to mobilise resources for biodiversity and sustainable development across the world.

Features of BIOFIN

• It helps countries to scale up their efforts and achieve the 20 Aichi Targets defined in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Strategic Plan for 2011-2020.
• It was launched by the United National Development Programme (UNDP) in October 2012.
• Its focus is on building a sound business case for increased investment in the management of ecosystems and biodiversity, with a particular focus on the needs and transformational opportunities at the national level.
• It works along two main axes-Globally-led development of a new methodological framework and adaptation and implementation of this framework at national level.

• BIOFIN is managed by the UNDP Ecosystems and Biodiversity Programme and supported by the European Union and the Governments of Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Flanders. The Global Environment Facility is a further partner financing parallel in-country projects.
• As of January 2015, BIOFIN’s total budget is 28 million US dollars and the total number of core participating countries is 29.
• While discussions are ongoing in several countries to formally join, the following 19 countries are already fully engaged: Botswana, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Fiji, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Seychelles, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda and Zambia. Further countries can be supported as additional resources are leveraged.

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