Banking on biodiversity

By Axel van Trotsenburg

Whether people live in bustling cities, remote forests or small island nations, nature underpins our health, our economies, and our futures. The world’s biodiversity provides food, jobs, and cultural heritage as well as regulates our climate. 

At the World Bank, we understand the link between poverty and climate change—and the role that biodiversity plays in both. Our mission and vision have been expanded to not only focus on ending poverty but also on building a livable planet. This recognizes that sustainability is embedded in all our work and how investments in biodiversity are not only good for the environment, but also make good economic sense. 

For instance, almost half a billion people—or a little over 6 percent of the world’s population—are engaged in fisheries and aquaculture value chains, creating jobs and supporting food security. Much of our food supply relies on pollinators, especially bees. And for every dollar governments invest in protected areas and nature-based tourism, the rate of return is at least six times the original investment, boosting jobs in these places. At just one national park in Zambia, for example, tourism generates jobs for 30 percent of the working-age population in the area. Knowing this, we are investing in emerging tourism destinations in the country to enhance economic opportunities.

Smart investments to serve communities and create jobs must be accompanied by a sharp focus on integrating nature and climate actions.  A case in point are nature-based solutions, which are being deployed all over the world as a cost-effective buffer against climate threats. Mangroves are a key example as they build resilience to climate change and extreme weather, particularly for rural and coastal communities, while also increasing in value over time, in contrast to traditional manmade infrastructure. This is why we see mangroves being used to protect coastlines from flooding, as a nursery for fisheries, and as a hugely effective carbon storage. Mangroves actually store more carbon than other types of trees. The World Bank has been investing in mangrove restoration, particularly in East Asia, including in Indonesia, where national efforts at restoring mangroves are empowering communities and mangroves are valued at $50,000 per hectare in coastal areas due to their role in flood protection.  

Our work, from Indonesia to Zambia and beyond, shows our commitment to investing in biodiversity—and our commitment to scaling up. We have built a portfolio of $14 billion in environmental sectors, while mainstreaming environmental considerations across all the sectors in which we work, across all regions and types of landscapes and seascapes. Our ambitious new Global Challenge Program on Forests for Development, Climate, and Biodiversity will enable us to scale up even more, bringing in public and private solutions to focus on key forest biomes like the Indo Malay in East Asia, the Miombo in East Africa, the Amazon, the Congo Basin, and the Upper Guinean forests. 

We are also working hard to mobilize resources, including grants, to support nature, making the most of domestic public budgets and derisking investment for private finance. Basically, we aim to get funds where and to whom they can make the greatest impact. As part of this, biodiversity remains an important discussion point in the 21st replenishment of the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA21), which provides grants and low-interest loans to  the  most vulnerable economies. This will help ensure that development does not come at the cost of sustainability for these low-income countries, which stand to lose the most from the disappearance of biodiversity. 

In addition to our financial support, we put a heavy focus on providing and sharing knowledge. This is an integral part of our new knowledge compact, where there is clear recognition that we need to engage with all partners to exchange new insights on how we can be more effective in our investments and solutions to protect and restore biodiversity. We are supporting countries with the data and analytics they need, from in-depth analysis on how to unlock finance for nature through repurposing subsidies to toolkits that help countries tap into the value of managing their marine and coastal natural assets. Decision makers need accurate, accessible, and affordable data to make informed decisions for the management of their natural resources.

Our efforts are underpinned by a commitment to scalable action and lasting impact. Through our new World Bank Group Scorecard we are emphasizing outcomes, with indicators that cut across biodiversity, land degradation, and pollution, with the understanding that development progress is not sustainable, and won’t last, if we destroy nature. This allows us to measure progress against our ambitious vision and adjust course where needed. 

But even with our financial size and analytical depth, we cannot do it all alone. 

This is why partnerships are key to supporting countries to achieve the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Our partnerships with the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and other UN agencies, multilateral development banks, and philanthropies as well as civil society, the private sector, countries, local communities and Indigenous Peoples are key to the success of our efforts to sustain a livable planet. 

This month, we are joining these partners at the UN’s 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) in Cali, Colombia, which has aptly been oriented around the theme “Peace with Nature.” The theme is fitting because, ultimately, a livable planet is one with sustainable production and consumption, where people don’t need to live in poverty but are part of resilient and inclusive communities. This is what we’re working together with our partners to achieve—a planet where biodiversity can continue to provide for the next generation.

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