The UK provides a variety of bilateral and multilateral funding for biodiversity-related projects outside the UK, including in the UK’s Overseas Territories. Much of this funding is linked to achieving wider socio-economic development goals.
The UK provides funding to the multilateral Global Environment Facility, which funds a variety of biodiversity conservation projects, including those relating to the implementation of the CBD.
The UK Government’s Darwin Initiative provides grants to projects in many different nations (and the UK’s Overseas Territories) that help protect biodiversity through locally based projects and meet their commitments to CBD. Projects usually address key issues such as habitat loss and degradation, climate change, eutrophication and over-exploitation. The Darwin initiative is expected to expand with input from the UK government’s new ‘international biodiversity fund’.
The International Climate Fund is supported by several UK Government Departments and provides financial support to developing countries to respond to climate change. This includes projects which have a biodiversity conservation component focussed on finding nature-based solutions which address wider societal difficulties and biodiversity loss simultaneously
The Conflict, Stability and Security Fund is supported by several UK Government Departments and provides financial support to reduce the risk of instability within vulnerable countries. It funds a variety of projects, including those where biodiversity conservation contributes to stability and security.
The UK Government’s Department for International Development also administers a variety of funding schemes, many of which can provide financial support to projects with a biodiversity conservation component. This includes funding for research and development, as well as implementation.
The UK Government provides funding for ecological research, including research relevant to the implementation of the CBD outside the UK, through the Natural Environment Research Council , the Newton Fund and the Global Challenges Research Fund.
In 2019, the UK Government announced a further £1.2bn in funding for the environment. £220m of this has been allocated specifically to a new ‘international biodiversity fund’ which support projects protecting against the loss of globally endangered species.
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