Biodiversity

Biodiversity is a cornerstone of development, and its loss threatens many hard-won development gains. Biodiversity blunts the impact of extreme weather events and conflict on development; it is also the wealth of poor nations and poor communities within nations as a producer of jobs and GDP. For example, in the fisheries sector, 60 million jobs globally are tied directly to fishing and fish farming.  For every one of those jobs, 2.5 more are created in the fisheries value chain. That is 200 million jobs, 60 percent of which are in the developing world. The same can be said for industries such as forestry and nature-based tourism. 

The value of biodiversity goes beyond the variety of living organisms, and also includes the services provided by healthy ecosystems - such as wild pollination, provision of food from marine fisheries, and timber from native forests.  To capture this broader concept, we refer to nature, rather than biodiversity alone.  

Around the world, nature is vanishing at an unprecedented rate and scale. The poorest economies stand to lose the most in relative terms from nature loss, which puts at risk their prospects to grow out of poverty. World Bank modelling shows that in a scenario where just a few ecosystems services collapse, low-income countries could forego 10 percent in real GDP annually by 2030, compared with global losses of 2.3 percent. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia could see annual drops of 9.7 and 6.5 percent, relative to a no tipping point scenario.

The most vulnerable communities are most at risk too - 80 percent of the global population below the poverty line lives in rural areas and tend to depend heavily on nature’s services. Without income from natural resources, poverty among smallholders in Latin America, South Asia, East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa would be higher. Healthy ecosystems prevent the descent of poor households into deeper poverty by providing food, water, and raw materials, and thus act as a barrier against natural and man-made disasters and as a safety net during economic crises.

Nature loss is the result of market, policy, and institutional failures that are keeping economies on unsustainable development paths.  For example, the volume of subsidies that are harmful to development is at least five to six times more the amount of funding devoted to protecting biodiversity. For this reason, conservation efforts alone are not sufficient to halt the global loss of nature.

Investing in nature creates opportunities for high-value and greener growth. Shifting markets and value chains toward models that conserve and restore natural capital, and use it sustainably, can create long-term growth and greener and higher quality jobs, if measures are put in place for an equitable and inclusive transition. Strategic investment in protected areas can create opportunities for income diversification which support local economies. Leveraging these opportunities and bringing nature into rural and urban development planning is essential for setting economies on a resilient and prosperous development path.

Last Updated: Apr 21, 2025

To create a world free of poverty on a livable planet, the World Bank is mainstreaming nature considerations into economic policy, development programs, and strategic sectoral investments. Ecosystem services provided by nature are the foundation of human well-being, economic prosperity, and development. This is why the World Bank has been at the forefront of financing nature for decades, providing integrated financing solutions for the conservation and restoration of nature, supporting institution-building, and developing tools and analytics that help provide evidence-based knowledge. Increasingly, attention is shifting to economic sectors and policies beyond the purview of environmental ministries – for example, urban development, agriculture, disaster risk management, and water management - to address the drivers of nature loss and promote sustainable sector practices.

The World Bank is committed to support countries to adopt nature-smart development approaches that protect nature while ensuring it remains an engine for growth and jobs. The Bank is supporting the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal GBF (KMGBF) adopted in December 2022 at the 15^th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-15). Our holistic, cross sectoral work already contributes to GBF ambitions across numerous goals and targets.    

Bringing nature at the center of development in countries means defining how economic and financial incentives and regulations can better integrate longer-term sustainability considerations across sectors. This includes opportunities to boost the economy and deliver positive environmental outcomes simultaneously through nature-based solutions. The modeling and analytical work on nature the World Bank has developed provides insights on economic impacts of different policy scenarios, helping governments in this endeavor.

More, better, and more accessible finance is needed to halt nature loss and support high-impact projects. The Bank is the leading multilateral financier of biodiversity. It provides an array of financial tools to support biodiversity and ecosystems, from concessional IDA funds to blending and innovative tools that contribute to mobilize more “green finance.” At the same time, it works to develop new standards and provide data and decision-support tools for governments and financial institutions to shed light on nature-related risks and opportunities is contributing to “greening” global finance.

Nature is also at the core of World Bank Multi-donor Trust Funds (MDTF), which strategically raise resources and concessional funds to blend, de-risk, and pilot new financing financial instruments, and provide analytical foundations for investment in nature:

• The Global Program on Sustainability (GPS), which builds on the WB-led WAVES partnership, has been working with countries to incorporate the economic value of natural capital and the risks associated with its degradation in decision-making processes. It is also working to make sustainable finance part of the solution, engaging with the financial sector to support a better integration of risks and opportunities associated with natural capital into investment decisions and reporting.
• Through PROBLUE, a program to promote the development of integrated and sustainable economic activities in a healthy ocean, the Bank is ramping up work to address marine plastics and other threats to ocean health, like overfishing and the destruction of natural habitats such as mangroves.
• The World Bank also oversees PROGREEN, a program that addresses challenges to land-based natural assets threatened, for example, by land-use change, land degradation, desertification, and illegal logging.

The three trust fund programs focus on ocean and seascape issues, forest and landscape issues, and environmental and economic issues. All three support countries through knowledge, capacity building, grants and investments—and strive to respond to nature, economy, and livelihood needs of country clients. The MDTFs are accelerators that gain and add value by focusing on key issues of nature and finance, building on the Bank’s country engagement model, blended finance approaches, efficient operating models, and ability to engage upstream at the policy level and downstream at the investment and implementation level.

Finally, given the complex links between people and land, the World Bank has adopted a more integrated landscape approach that simultaneously works on improving the resilience of both ecosystems and livelihoods. Through the Environmental and Social Framework, the World Bank screens all its investment projects under the lens of the standard on “biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of living resources,” applying a precautionary approach to project design.

Last Updated: Apr 21, 2025

The World Bank is the leading multilateral financier of biodiversity. The FY23 (July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023) active Biodiversity portfolio was $3.7 billion. This is up 31% from $2.8 billion last fiscal year. 

In 2023, the World Bank Group developed a Nature Finance Tracking Methodology, as part of our IDA20 commitments, designed to capture contributions to nature and to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in a systematic manner. The approach aligns with the MDB Common Principles for Tracking Nature-Positive Finance and will help track nature-positive investments delivering measurable positive gains for nature, as well as those investments that integrate nature in various economic sectors and support a broader economic transition towards nature-positive practices.

In Indonesia, the Sustainable Landscapes Management Program is supporting the government’s efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and promote equitable growth through land tenure reform, social forestry, and emissions reductions payments. The World Bank’s Sustainable Oceans Program is supporting the country’s transition to a blue economy. The ocean underpins the country’s prosperity - 70 percent of Indonesians live in coastal areas, over 50 percent of the country’s protein supply is derived from fisheries, and Indonesia’s ocean economy is worth over US$256 billion annually. Yet this natural capital is under threat from overfishing, marine plastic pollution, and coastal and urban development, which are resulting in degradation of critical ecosystems such as coral reefs and mangroves. These challenges are exacerbated by high vulnerability to extreme weather events, which also- undermines coastal livelihoods. Building on a broad portfolio of investments and technical assistance, the World Bank-supported Mangroves for Coastal Resilience project aims to rehabilitate 75,000 hectares of mangroves, while enhancing mangrove protection and strengthening coastal development opportunities.

In Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the World Bank is making multisectoral blue economy investments to strengthen resilience and create jobs. The project will identify previously untapped sustainable economic opportunities for small, semi- and industrial-scale fishing operators, and invest in coastal infrastructure and an emergency response mechanism benefiting 28,000 people. To boost employment and productivity, it will also improve access to finance for 75 micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises, 60 percent of which are women-owned or managed, in the tourism, fisheries, and waste management value chains.

In India the World Bank invested $285 million in an Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project to plant 200 square kilometers (an area more than 3x the size of Manhattan) of mangroves along India’s coast. Now, during cyclones, the tidal wave forces are reduced by increased mangrove coverage. India has focused on nature-based solutions to protect against natural disasters while increasing biodiversity. This triple win means increased productivity for marine ecosystems and the protection of coastal communities for 11.9 million residents.

More than 70% of Mozambican households rely on natural resources. From the tourism attracted by its nature and wildlife reserves to the timber and fish that provide financial security as well as nourishment, it is in the community’s interest that resources are renewable and sustainable, so it is critical to involve the community. The Mozambique Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) portfolio is fostering a healthy coexistence between humans and nature by working across issues and sectors to tackle deforestation and resource exploitation, together with challenges such as rural poverty, community rights and land management. One way the Mozambique ILM portfolio ensures it maintains its gains is to inspire conservation by funding environmental clubs for students. Eighty scholarships are awarded to girls between the ages of 13-17 for vocational and general education. It is a cornerstone for raising environmental awareness, promoting action, and adjusting behavior.

Examples of the World Bank’s financial innovation include the Wildlife Conservation Bond launched in 2022 in support of South Africa’s efforts to conserve the black rhino. The bond is an outcome-based financial instrument that channels investments to achieve conservation outcomes – measured in this case by an increase in black rhino populations. Through the bond, investors support the financing of activities to protect and grow a critically endangered species with clear conservation targets, contributing directly to biodiversity, and bringing jobs to local communities through the creation of conservation-related employment in a rural and underserved region of South Africa.

The Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD) has introduced its first Sustainability-Linked Bond (SLB) on the Rwanda Stock Exchange. The SLB, with a seven-year term and a target of 30 billion RWF, is part of a larger 150 billion RWF program and is backed by a World Bank loan to the Rwandan government under the Access to Finance for Economic Recovery and Resilience Project (AFIRR). The SLB is unique in many ways: it is the first time International Development Association (IDA) financing is being used to leverage private capital; it offers a step-down coupon rate as an incentive for achieving sustainability targets, contrasting with the more common step-up coupon structure; and it is the first by a national development bank globally and in East Africa.

Last Updated: Apr 21, 2025

Multi-stakeholder partnerships are an important aspect of the World Bank’s environmental engagement as they pool expertise, access, and resources. These partnerships comprise the public sector, private sector, multilateral organizations, and civil society to advance collective action on some of the world’s most pressing biodiversity challenges.

The World Bank is the lead agency of flagship programs co-funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), helping convene partners, strengthen cooperation across countries and sectors, and amplify knowledge exchange. The Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program is helping protect biodiversity and ecosystems and improve integrated landscape management in priority areas of the Amazon, with projects in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, among others, being co-implemented by diverse partners. The Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Program (FOLUR) seeks to transform food and land use systems, with focus on commodities like cocoa, coffee, and wheat, across 27 participating countries. Finally, the Global Wildlife Program (GWP), launched in 2015 with projects across 38 countries and with $359 million in GEF financing, plus $2 billion in co-financing, addresses issues such as illegal wildlife trade and human wildlife conflict while promoting wildlife-based economies and nature-based tourism.  

The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) launched in 2010 brings together INTERPOL, the CITES Secretariat, World Customs Organization and UNODC with the World Bank in a coordinated global response to wildlife crime. ICCWC helps strengthen national law enforcement and criminal justice systems and international coordination in support of sustainable development. The Consortium has developed a Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit and Indicator Framework to assess and strengthen wildlife crime responses and prevention strategies. Within ICCWC, the World Bank provides technical assistance on anti-money laundering and prevention of illicit financial flows and has a strategic role by being able to elevate the environmental and wildlife crime agenda with key stakeholders at a national level.

The WBG has actively supported the establishment of the Taskforce on Nature-related Disclosures (TNFD), tasked with developing a framework to help the financial and private sector understand their risks and impacts on nature, ultimately helping promote more green finance.

Last Updated: Apr 21, 2025