GEF Early Action Support Webinar Series Session 13: Public-Private Finance Flowing into GBF Target 19 – Trends and Innovation

Organizers:

Languages: English (with interpretation in French and Spanish)
Date: 6 March 2025 (English)
Sessions: 1 session (English)
Commitment: 90 min

Trends and Innovation

The session is designed to address the critical need for mobilizing sustainable financial flows for nature under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This session underscores the importance of bridging the biodiversity finance gap by unlocking private-sector investment alongside traditional public finance. It provides a comprehensive look at innovative financing mechanisms that are essential for supporting nature-positive investments and achieving GBF targets.

During the webinar, participants will gain insights from a diverse group of experts—including representatives from governments, financial institutions, NGOs, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The session will present practical frameworks and real-world case studies on various financing tools, such as debt instruments, biodiversity credits, habitat banking, and payment for ecosystem services (PES). An interactive question and answer segment will ensure that all participants leave with a clear understanding of how to scale these mechanisms effectively to support biodiversity goals.

Webinar objectives

This webinar will address the following components and concepts related to public-private finance for biodiversity:

Assess the current landscape of public and private financial flows for biodiversity.
Explore innovative finance mechanisms (e.g., debt-for-nature swaps, biodiversity credits, habitat banking, insurance solutions, PES).
Showcase scalable case studies from the Revenues for Nature guidebooks and BIOFIN.
Discuss equitable benefit-sharing to support Indigenous and local communities.
Set action priorities and policy recommendations leading up to COP30.

Sessions

The webinar will be offered in English with interpretation in French and Spanish.

Webinar recordings will be available in the Course Content section on this page.

Webinar agenda

Elapsed time	Presentation	Presenter
0:02	Intro/ logistics	Aurora Audino, Global Environmental Finance Fellow, United Nations Development Programme’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (UNDP BIOFIN)
0:02	Welcome & context setting/agenda, about R4N project & community	Aurelia Blin, Senior Manager, Nature Markets and Revenues, United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)
0:05	Introduction to Public-Private Finance: NBSAPs to Innovative Mechanisms	Nonde Sichilima, Securities and Exchange Commission, Zambia
0:15	Innovative finance for primary forest conservation Case: HIFOR	Ashley Camhi, Director of Innovative Finance, Forests and Climate, Wildlife Conservation Society
0:30	Habitat banking & Biodiversity credits Case: Savimbo Nature and Biodiversity Credits	Drea Burbank, CEO Savimbo Fernando Lezama, Taita, Co-founder, Savimbo
0:45	Growing interest in debt instruments Case: Bahamas debt conversion project for ocean conservation	Oliver Withers, Head of Nature, Standard Chartered (joining 3.30 CET)
1:00	Payment for Ecosystem Services Case: BIOFIN	Fei Leng, BIOFIN China National Coordinator, UNDP
1:15	Q&A	UNDP, and UNEP FI can intervene
1:25	Closing	Aurora Audino, UNDP