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Add to Preferred SourcesThe International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) will help advance the aims of The Lion’s Share Fund, an initiative co-founded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to encourage greater private sector investment in biodiversity conservation.
In recognition of the interdependency of people and nature, ICC is supporting The Lion’s Share Fund, to reverse biodiversity loss and protect threatened wildlife. Launched in 2018, The Lion’s Share Fund is a unique initiative led by UNDP to rally private sector leadership and consumer support for wildlife conservation, animal protection, and ecosystem restoration across the world.
In particular, the Fund provides companies with an opportunity to contribute 0.5% of their media spend on advertising campaigns featuring images of animals towards wildlife conservation, habitats, and animal welfare projects. As part of its work, the Fund aims to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life below water), SDG 15 (Life on land), and SDG 17 (Partnerships).
“With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to impact lives and livelihoods, the imperative to protect our planet’s treasured biodiversity has become ever clearer. Now is the time to address the disturbing trend of increasing biodiversity loss and to promote the sustainable use of our shared biological resources. In partnership with UNDP, ICC will support The Lion’s Share Fund to encourage decisive private sector action and bold solutions that will help to realise more resilient ecosystems globally,” said ICC Secretary General John W.H. Denton AO.
By supporting the Fund, ICC will mobilize its worldwide network of businesses to accelerate investment in the SDGs and promote greater private sector investment in wildlife to advance biodiversity conservation. ICC will encourage businesses to take positive action for global diversity by joining the Fund’s growing list of partner organizations, which includes Mars, Incorporated, The Economist Group, Gucci, Cartier, the UN Environment Programme, Nielsen, and JCDecaux. In addition, ICC and UNDP will cooperate to ensure that local economic actors, especially those in wildlife communities, are able to adapt to the challenges associated with COVID-19. This recent collaboration reaffirms ICC’s continued commitment to work with partners across the globe to accelerate investment in the SDGs and to make climate and nature everyone’s business.
Supporting communities dependent on wildlife-based tourism
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, The Lion’s Share recently announced new grants to support communities dependent on wildlife-based tourism – an industry that employs millions and is critical to wildlife conservation around the world, but one that has been devastated by the pandemic. The grants will fund local projects in nine countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to build resilience in wildlife-rich areas and support protection of threatened wildlife in their last strongholds.
Original source: UNDP