National efforts to identify, quantify, and bridge the global biodiversity finance gap: The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN)

2 PM, Seminar Room, Department of Economics and Management

Speaker: Andrew Seidl, PhD Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University and Senior Technical Advisor, The Biodiversity Finance Initiative, UNDP 

Abstract

Government and conservationists see biodiversity finance as the ultimate solution to biodiversity challenges. The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) is working with 30 countries to assess their current finance solutions, biodiversity expenditures, medium term financial needs, and to develop and implement a national biodiversity finance plan.  The BIOFIN approach and early lessons learned indicate that a holistic approach will identify concrete opportunities for better aligning financial and economic incentives among the government, private sector actors, and conservation practitioners. Biodiversity finance can create solutions that 1) increase revenue, 2) better align expenditures, 3) reduce costs, and 4) improve conservation delivery. This seminar will provide an overview of the BIOFIN initiative, its early lessons and the way forward in biodiversity finance.