69th GEF Council meeting: $25.68 million allocated to biodiversity projects. Is it enough?

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) manages the finances of several environmental conventions, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Facility’s financial support is allocated over a four-year span to guarantee that the funds are distributed throughout the duration to achieve the best environmental outcomes. At present, the last year of the eighth replenishment is in progress.

At the recently concluded 69th council meeting, a total of $256.13 million was made available for 21 projects and programmes that will address environmental challenges related to biodiversity, climate change, land degradation and chemicals and waste. This core funding is expected to mobilise over $3 billion in co-financing.

The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) was conceived at CBD COP15 to specifically support the work carried out towards meeting the targets and goals set under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). KMGBF calls for mobilising at least $200 billion annually by 2030 to fund biodiversity conservation efforts.

Specifically for biodiversity, participants finalised the second Work Program for the GBFF and allocated $25.68 million for one year. Out of this, 30 per cent will support efforts by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC). 

These GEF funds allocated now would be used to implement three projects — two in Africa and one in Latin America.

In Africa, one project supports long-term conservation in the Sangha Tri-National landscape. This covers three contiguous protected areas: Lobeke National Park in Cameroon, Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas in the Central African Republic and Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in Congo. The fund will add to the existing trust fund for the parks and also support for stewardship efforts by IPLCs. GEF financing for this amounts to $7 million with co-financing equalling $464,000.

The second project is community-based conservation for biodiversity and livelihoods in the context of climate change in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This aims to improve the conservation and sustainable use of nature and supports Indigenous-led businesses related to biodiversity, to provide sources of income while protecting forests. For this $6.4 million has been allocated along with expected co-financing of $12 million.

In Latin America, the project identified for support is based in northern Peru’s Northern Transversal Economic Corridor and will work to expand and strengthen the management of conservation areas, restore priority landscapes and establish new protected areas in support of local livelihoods. The overall GEF funding amounts to $12.2 million, with an additional $30.1 million from co-financing.

Other than projects funded directly by GBFF, there were some nature-related projects which were supported under the GEF Trust Fund and  the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) too. For example, a project for science-based management of biodiversity and natural resources for economic development got money from both the GEF Trust Fund and LDCF. This project supports resilient landscape and seascape management in Madagascar. For this, GEF financing is equivalent to $20 million ($18.2 million from GEF Trust Fund and $1.8 million from LDCF). Co-financing is as high as $162.3 million.

GEF provides funds for six conventions: The Agreement on Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, Convention on Biological Diversity, Minamata Convention on Mercury, Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, UN Convention to Combat Desertification and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

With this latest allocation, $5.3 billion have been provided under GEF-8 replenishment. Over the past three decades, the GEF has provided more than $26 billion in financing, primarily as grants and mobilised another $153 billion for country-driven priority projects.

Currently, GEF is also in the process of negotiating the ninth replenishment period, which is expected to conclude prior to the 8th GEF Assembly to be held in Uzbekistan during May 2026. There, a decision about the size and ambition of the GEF-9 funding envelope would be taken.

“The GEF’s ninth replenishment is going to be vital to the achievement of international commitments on biodiversity, climate and pollution, and the funding allocated this week is keeping us moving in an innovative, impactful direction,” said GEF chief executive and chairperson Carlos Manuel Rodriguez.