Recycling Loss Is Not Resource Mobilisation

This article was first published in ECO

Developing countries are right to insist on scaled-up, predictable and grant-based biodiversity finance. New and additional public finance remains essential to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework, particularly for countries facing severe fiscal constraints.

But resource mobilisation cannot be measured only by how much new money is raised. It must also be judged by the overall direction and balance of financial flows affecting biodiversity.

Today, harmful incentives and private financial flows continue to outweigh positive biodiversity finance by orders of magnitude. Agricultural and other subsidies still incentivise ecosystem degradation. Public and private finance continues to drive activities that result in deforestation, land conversion, rights violations and overexploitation. When destructive flows continue to exceed biodiversity-positive finance, we are not mobilising resources, we are recycling loss.

Reforming harmful subsidies is about reorienting public finance toward resilient biodiversity-positive livelihoods. Just transition principles must guide this shift: prioritising small-scale farmers, fishers and Indigenous Peoples, strengthening agroecological approaches, and safeguarding income stability and food security. Reform should reduce harm without transferring risk or volatility onto already vulnerable communities.

The same logic applies to private finance. Banks, insurers and investors continue to underwrite biodiversity-harmful activities. Voluntary initiatives will not realign financial systems. Parties should consider, in accordance with national circumstances, policy and regulatory measures that help align financial flows with biodiversity objectives. This approach reflects existing commitments under the Global Biodiversity Framework, including Targets 14, 18 and 19, and the direction already set in decision 16/34 to reform harmful incentives and align financial flows.

Debt dynamics make this even more urgent. Many countries face fiscal pressures that can incentivise short-term, extractive revenue strategies. Without addressing the interaction between debt, harmful incentives and biodiversity loss, resource mobilisation risks being undermined by structural constraints.

COP17 credibility will depend not only on pledges of new finance, but on whether Parties address the full financial picture. Scaling public finance and reforming harmful flows are not competing priorities, they are complementary pillars of effective implementation.

Resource mobilisation must mean that biodiversity is financially supported and relieved from systemic pressure, not structurally undermined. The direction of finance matters.