Main Issue
Biodiversity is the variety of Earth’s terrestrial, freshwater, and marine organisms, as well as the ecosystems of which they are part. Biodiversity is crucial to the future of all life on the planet and is also the foundation for the ecosystem goods and services that enable human societies to thrive. Biodiversity provides us with food, water, and materials, as well as services such as climate regulation, pollination, disaster protection, and nutrient cycling.
Biodiversity, thus, is fundamental to sustainable development. Managing and protecting this asset for current and future generations requires full engagement of governments at all levels, civil society organizations, the private sector, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and others.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which came into force in 1993, is the global policy framework for action to maintain biodiversity for future generations. There has been some progress in conserving and sustainably using biodiversity and ecosystems at local and national levels over the past several decades but not at the scale necessary to stem the ongoing tide of biodiversity loss. Changing the trajectory of biodiversity loss means addressing its five main direct drivers: habitat change; overexploitation or unsustainable use; climate change; pollution, and invasive alien species. These critical drivers of biodiversity loss are intensifying, particularly habitat loss driven by the expansion of agriculture.
What We Do
The GEF provides financial resources for developing countries and countries with economies in transition to implement the CBD.
The goal of the GEF-9 (2026-2030) biodiversity focal area strategy is that globally significant biodiversity is conserved, sustainably used, and restored, directly supporting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).
To achieve this goal, GEF-9 investments will focus on three main objectives:
- Improve conservation, sustainable use, and restoration of natural ecosystems through integrated landscape and seascape approaches
- Strengthen biosafety and ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the utilization of genetic resources, including through effective implementation of the Cartagena and Nagoya protocols
- Realign financial flows and increase mobilization of domestic resources for biodiversity
GBFF in Focus
Since 2024, the Global Environment Facility's Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) has moved from launch to full-speed operation with over $288 million in projects approved. GBFF In Focus is a series showcasing how the new biodiversity fund is changing the game for how countries can invest in nature.
Results
The GEF has invested more than $5.2 billion to conserve biodiversity and use it sustainably. This investment has leveraged over $13.4 billion in additional funds, supporting 1,500 projects in more than 158 countries.
The GEF has supported the improved management of more than 2,500 million hectares of terrestrial and marine protected areas around the world, an area larger than the size of Latin America. We have also helped countries sustainably use and manage biodiversity across more than 543 million hectares of productive landscapes and seascapes.
Under the Cartagena Protocol, the GEF has supported the development of National Biosafety Frameworks in 127 countries and their implementation. GEF support has also been critical in bringing the Nagoya Protocol into force by supporting countries to develop the needed legal and policy frameworks to be able to ratify the agreement. A growing part of the GEF portfolio is building country capacity for its implementation.
Looking Ahead
The GEF-9 biodiversity strategy reflects the priorities of the KMGBF, adopted at CBD COP15 in Montreal, and positions the Global Environment Facility and its family of funds as the multilateral financial engine for the decisive push toward the 2030 global biodiversity targets.
All GEF-9 biodiversity STAR allocations must demonstrate alignment with countries' National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, directly linking GEF investment to each party's own priorities. Projects under Objective 3 must additionally align with national biodiversity finance plans.
Objective one continues the GEF's shift toward integrated landscape and seascape management approaches, blending integrated governance and spatial planning, conservation, restoration, sustainable use, biodiversity mainstreaming, and interventions harnessing synergies with other conventions and objectives within large-scale landscape and seascape mosaics.
Objective two continues GEF support to strengthen biosafety and ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits that arise from the utilization of genetic resources, including through the implementation of the Cartagena and Nagoya protocols.
Objective three responds to growing attention within CBD processes to closing the biodiversity finance gap, helping countries to align incentives with the KMGBF and mobilize domestic resources through a global program on realignment and resource mobilization, blended finance and support to the implementation of biodiversity finance plans.
GEF-9 also extends the Indigenous Peoples and local communities financing target across the GEF Trust Fund, Least Developed Countries Fund, and Special Climate Change Fund, with a portfolio-level target of 20 percent of resources directed to support actions by Indigenous Peoples and local communities for biodiversity.
The Indigenous Peoples and local communities Conservation Initiative (formerly the Heart of Conservation Initiative) is budgeted at $100 million in GEF-9, a fourfold increase over GEF-7 and GEF-8 allocations.
The GEF will continue to support the development of biodiversity policy and institutional frameworks through enabling activities, with an initial $125 million budget in GEF-9 for national biodiversity monitoring systems, national reports for CBD, the Cartagena Protocol, and the Nagoya Protocol, and, for countries not yet covered, national biodiversity finance plans.
