Ninety-one countries, including Ghana, are to benefit from a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) $38 million biodiversity conservation financing project.

The fund is to help bridge the current global biodiversity financing gap of $700 billion, and also support the beneficiary countries achieve their action targets 18 and 19 of the Global Biodiversity Framework of eliminating nature-harmful capital flows and scaling up finance for biodiversity.

This was announced at the launch of a Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) by the UN body in Accra yesterday.

The initiative also aims to support the development of a national biodiversity financing plan and mobilisation of resources for the implementation of a Global Biodiversity Framework.

The BIOFIN project is a transformative sustainable finance intervention that would involve relevant biodiversity and finance stakeholders, including government ministries, the private sector and financial institutions.

It would also help beneficiary countries carry out baseline diagnostic studies, capacity and institutional strengthening and the development and implementation of a biodiversity financial plan.

Event

The acting Deputy UNDP Resident Representative, Fati Attahiru, said the ceremony marked the official commencement of the BIOFIN project in the country, describing it as a huge step towards closing the global biodiversity financing gap.

Launched in 2012, she said the initiative was a global programme designed to address challenges of financing biodiversity conservation.

"One of its key objectives is to provide technical support to countries to develop and implement comprehensive strategies for biodiversity finance," Ms Attahiru added.

Ms Attahiru said that the support would also include the provision of technical assistance to countries that developed and implemented customised and comprehensive strategies for biodiversity finance.

"With 32 countries participating in the current programme and Ghana launching the initiative, we hope that the following objectives will be achieved in the next three years," she said.

They are policy and institutional review, expenditure review, and financing needs assessment.

National resources

The Director, Environment, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Dr Peter Dery, said the country was blessed with rich and diverse biodiversity resources, including forests, wetlands, wildlife and marine ecosystems that support the economy, cultural heritage, food security and overall well-being.

He, however, expressed concerns over the increasing pressure from its unsustainable use, pollution, climate change and habitat degradation, saying "we need to do something about it. And doing something about it requires resources.

"As part of the country’s commitment to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and achieve our national biodiversity targets, a lot of things have taken place.

Ghana was one of the countries to meet the deadline for submission of national targets to the CBD. That was in August last year," the director said.

He added that the country had gone ahead to commence processes of developing a National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan.