How Should Financiers Align with the Global Biodiversity Framework? Five Key Principles

How should global funders align with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)? The following briefing note recommends that funders commit to the following five principles:

• Halt and reverse biodiversity loss: Establish moratoriums and prohibit funding for the expansion of sectors and activities that drive biodiversity destruction and are not aligned with MGB. Investors should ensure that their policies are based on the concept of "no losses" rather than "no net losses" (ofsetting).
• Respect and prioritize the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities: Implementing a zero-tolerance approach to attacks and violence by land, environmental and human rights defenders; disclosure of information about clients and funded projects; sound due diligence; exclusion of companies with poor social and environmental performance; and prohibition of projects that may affect Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation.
• Fostering a just transition: Prioritizing the transition from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy, and prioritizing transformative change over false solutions.
• Ensuring ecosystem integrity: Financial institutions should not simply assess impacts within the boundaries of the project site, but require funding proposals and assessments to assess cumulative impacts across the ecosystem before granting funding, and prohibit funding activities that seriously and negatively affect ecosystem integrity.
• Aligning institutional objectives across sectors, themes and instruments: Create strong coherence between biodiversity-related objectives and other institutional objectives so that biodiversity and climate objectives are complementary and simultaneous. They should also maintain an open dialogue with indigenous peoples and local communities in their due diligence and decision-making processes.