During the 67th meeting of the Global Environment Facility, the 2nd meeting of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) Council members and constituency groups took the floor, recognizing the historic nature of the adoption of this first work program amounting to $37.8 million.
The GBFF work program comprises three projects: Conserving Mexican biodiversity through communities and their protected areas; Biodiversity Conservation in Indigenous Lands, in Brazil; and Caatinga Protected Areas Program, in Brazil. Council members highlighted the agreement that the GBFF portfolio should target 39% of funding for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and expressed hope that future work programs would move towards this allocation. Speakers also noted there was agreement that international financial institutions (IFIs) and multilateral development banks (MDBs) would receive 25% of project funding, with the goal of helping these implementing agencies to scale up their biodiversity funding.