Photo credit: KAZA TFCA Secretariat
The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) approved 20 new project preparation grants for projects spanning 25 countries, including 16 countries accessing the GBFF for the first time.
With a total of $73.4 million programmed, the fifth selection round marks a further expansion of the GBFF's geographic reach and thematic ambition, with projects approved across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. The portfolio features a diverse mix of implementing agencies — including multilateral development banks, UN agencies, and civil society organizations — and a strong emphasis on Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs), transboundary conservation, and biodiversity-friendly finance.
The newly approved projects continue to advance the GBFF's three portfolio-level targets, with total programming matching or exceeding the thresholds. Across all programming rounds, 31.9 percent of GBFF financing has supported actions by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, against an aspirational target of 20 percent. The share programmed to Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States now stands at 38.8 percent, effectively meeting the 39 percent target. A further 30.4 percent of the portfolio is being channeled through international financial institutions, above the target of 25 percent.
Including this fifth round, a total of $362.2 million has now been programmed under the GBFF for 82 project preparation grant requests benefiting 87 countries.
Among the project preparation grants selected in this round, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will lead the development of a landmark $9 million initiative in Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, complemented by $115 million in co-financing. The project is to establish eight million hectares of Marine Prosperity Zones — IPLC-led socio-ecological territories designed to reconcile conservation with biodiversity-friendly livelihoods, including gender-responsive concessional microcredit lines. Co-designed with Indigenous Peoples and local communities from the outset, over two-thirds of the project budget is expected to directly support IPLC-led actions — making it one of the most ambitious IPLC-centered projects in the GBFF portfolio to date.
In the Caucasus, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to help Armenia protect and restore Lake Sevan — the largest lake in the Caucasus region and an internationally recognized Ramsar site, Important Bird Area, and Key Biodiversity Area. Decades of anthropogenic pressure have caused severe degradation to this ecologically critical ecosystem. A $1.3 million GBFF grant is to finance biodiversity conservation and restoration, while also supporting biodiversity-friendly community enterprises. The project builds on ADB's Glacier-to-Farm program, which includes a $100 million investment in the sanitation of Lake Sevan. The approval is particularly timely as Armenia prepares to host the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, placing this vital ecosystem at the heart of global biodiversity diplomacy.
A regional project led by WWF-US will bring together countries sharing the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), one of the world's largest transboundary conservation landscapes. With $3.6 million in GBFF funding and $6.6 million in co-financing, the project is to establish a Conservation Trust Fund that will benefit KAZA TFCA in its entirety, to provide durable, long-term financing for this 52 million hectare landscape spanning Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe — home to the world's largest elephant population, critical wildlife corridors, and the livelihoods of an estimated 3 million people. Local communities will be engaged in the governance of the trust fund and will benefit directly from its future financing windows.
In Jamaica, the IDB will develop a $3.25 million project to operationalize a performance-based co-management system of fishery conservation areas, which will scale up successful Jamaican sanctuary models that foster ecological recovery and local livelihoods. The project will leverage IDB’s extensive expertise in results-based and blue finance to establish a Blue Performance Facility, which will blend user fees, private investment, government budgets, and results-based grants to sustain long-term conservation efforts.
The 20 projects were selected for their potential to support national implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and deliver global environmental benefits, their contributions to the GBFF's portfolio-level targets, and regional balance. Projects span a wide range of ecosystems and biodiversity challenges across Angola, Armenia, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, El Salvador, Eswatini, Fiji, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe.
The GBFF is hosted by the GEF and has so far received over $386 million in contributions from 12 governments: Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, the province of Québec, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
