Canada announces contribution to Global Biodiversity Framework Fund to protect world’s nature

At home and on the world stage, Canada is taking action to protect nature and keep the planet healthy for generations to come. In Montréal last December, global delegates at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) committed to creating the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) to help halt and reverse biodiversity loss and put nature on a path to recovery.

As Canada hosts the world once again—this time in Vancouver at the Seventh Assembly of the Global Environment Facility Assembly (GEF)—that fund was launched. The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development, announced that Canada will invest $200 million in the new fund, making Canada the first country to contribute.

Minister Hussen made the announcement in Vancouver, where he is co-hosting and chairing the GEF Assembly, which runs from August 22 to 26.

“Biodiversity is the critical foundation of our well-being and the health of our planet. The new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund will play a key role in addressing biodiversity loss. It will address it in developing countries, where the impacts of nature loss are highest; it will address it in a gender-responsive manner, including through cross-sectoral partnerships; it will address it in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples, the original guardians of the lands and seas. Canada is making a significant contribution to this new fund and continuing to show our support for the GEF’s eight replenishments to ensure the protection of our planet’s biodiversity for generations to come,” Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development.

The GBFF will quickly mobilize new resources and disburse them to developing countries to support their efforts to protect and restore nature and grow resilient economies. Additionally, the new fund will invest in the world’s most diverse, rich, and unique ecosystems through 3 critical innovations:

• supporting Indigenous and local action to protect and conserve biodiversity, with the goal of devoting as much as 20% of programming toward projects that support these initiatives
• delivering 25% of the fund through selected international financial institutions, a key way to increase resources through private sector involvement and to ensure policies are coherent
• prioritizing at least 36% of the fund’s resources to support the most vulnerable people, small island developing states, and least developed countries

Minister Hussen also announced that Canada is providing an additional $22.8 million in funding for the GEF’s Eighth Replenishment to further support the GEF’s efforts to tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. This additional funding builds on Canada’s initial contribution of $219 million to the GEF’s Eighth Replenishment, which was announced at COP15 and highlights Canada’s continued dedication to real action that will help end global biodiversity loss.