Governments Agree on Resource Mobilization Strategy to Advance Global Biodiversity Protection

[Rome, February 28, 2025] Early this morning, governments reached an agreement in Rome on a strategy to mobilize the necessary funds to protect biodiversity and achieve the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). This marks the successful conclusion of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16), which was suspended in Cali, Colombia, in 2024.

Parties agreed to establish permanent financial mechanisms under the Convention on Biological Diversity and leverage various financial instruments to close the biodiversity finance gap. Additionally, they enhanced planning, monitoring, reporting, and review mechanisms to track global and national progress on KMGBF implementation. The Cali Fund was also launched, opening a new chapter in private sector engagement by facilitating the sharing of benefits from digital sequence information on genetic resources.

COP16 President Susana Muhamad emphasized that the negotiations in Rome demonstrated the Parties’ strong commitment to the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework. “Only by working together can we make ‘Peace with Nature’ a reality.” CBD Executive Secretary Astrid Schomaker added, “This meeting has proven that multilateralism works and provides a clear roadmap for closing the biodiversity finance gap.”

Parties agreed on a resource mobilization roadmap, aiming to raise at least $200 billion annually by 2030, with international financial flows reaching $20 billion per year by 2025 and increasing to $30 billion by 2030. The agreement includes commitments to improve existing financial mechanisms while developing new ones to support future decisions at CBD COP17, COP18, and COP19.

A Resource Mobilization Strategy was adopted, identifying public finance, private and philanthropic funds, multilateral development banks, blended finance, and other innovative financial mechanisms as key sources of funding for KMGBF implementation. The decision is also aligned with guidance to the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the interim financial mechanism of the Convention. Between June 2022 and December 2024, GEF approved over $3 billion for KMGBF projects, leveraging over $22 billion in co-financing, including $1.9 billion from the private sector. GEF also manages the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), established in response to COP15.

This agreement lays a strong financial foundation for global biodiversity protection and paves the way for achieving the 2030 targets.