LocationsNature Facility
Leveraging blended finance for nature
Investing in nature
The Nature Facility is a Multi-Partner Trust Fund that will direct high-impact investments into the world's most at-risk ecosystems
The Nature Facility was born out of an urgent need for action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. Traditional approaches to conservation cannot meet the scale and the pace of the biodiversity crisis alone. The current paradigm in nature conservation falls short in addressing the fundamental challenges associated with how global production systems are set up, where finance flows and how it is valued by all segments of society.
To achieve the targets outlined in the Global Biodiversity Framework, there is a need to transcend the traditional boundaries of conservation. Grant funding alone will not be enough to close the nature financing gap and scale up necessary support for biodiversity. Private investment has the potential to unlock significant capital flows and foster a financial ecosystem that values and invests in nature over time. This is where the Nature Facility, and its growing alliance of public-private partners, will work to deliver transformative change and nature-positive solutions that are both economically viable and socially and ecologically beneficial.
Mission
The Nature Facility aims to catalyse large-scale investment into the protection and restoration of at-risk ecosystems of global importance, with a focus on Natural World Heritage Sites (WHS) and the ecosystems and people that interact with them.
Natural WHS have been inscribed for their global significance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, providing significant benefits to society. For some species on the brink of extinction, WHS are a last line of defense.
Covering less than 1% of Earth’s planet, there are currently 266 Natural World Heritage Sites across 112 countries.
Theory of Change
The Nature Facility will provide targeted investment through three pathways to unlock capital at scale and build a pipeline of nature-positive investable opportunities to address drivers of degradation. To achieve this goal, the Facility will focus its efforts into three main intervention themes, (1) Enabling Investment, (2) Catalysing Investment and (3) Direct Investment in the most at-risk World Heritage Centered Landscapes in the Global South.
Funds will be deployed across several scales from local-level nature-positive investments to national investment opportunities. Given the highly nuanced and complex variables for each World Heritage Centered Landscape, the Nature Facility will foster multi-actor engagement to select and pilot innovative financing mechanisms that value nature.
Ultimately, the Facility aims to enable more nature positive investments that result in more nature positive livelihoods leading to even greater investment.
Demonstration Programmes
The Nature Facility launched its first landscape programme in Burundi and DRC to create the conditions for nature-positive development around Kibira National Park and WHS Kahuzi-Biega National Park. The Facility is supporting an innovative blended financing project that leverages the potential of the afro-montane rainforests – historically used as rear bases for regional armed groups - into catalysts for sustained peace, food security, and climate resilience.
With an aim to delink deforestation from leading commodity supply chains, the project is providing concessional finance to scale-up nature-positive SMEs around the forests. The project prioritizes investment in key exploitative sectors with the highest potential for reducing drivers of degradation, namely agriculture, clean energy, forestry, and eco-tourism. Investments will seek to create a virtuous cycle whereby financial returns can be re-invested into a local foundation to carry out park management and peacebuilding in perpetuity.
Kibira National Park, Burundi
In parallel, a second flagship Programme has been developed to build a dedicated Tiger Landscape Investment Fund to catalyze private sector investments into nature-positive businesses that contribute to the protection, restoration, and sustainable management of Tiger Landscapes.
Through the establishment of the Tiger Landscape Investment Fund, the Programme aims to build a pipeline of nature-positive investable projects that can unlock institutional investment to achieve global biodiversity and climate goals. The Programme will initially focus activities around Malaysia’s Taman Negara landscape and Thailand’s Western Forest Complex, including the WHS Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, with the intention to offer learnings for other countries in the region to scale-up financing for biodiversity.
Local community ranger is taking a measurement of a wild boar while patrolling the Taman Negara forest.
A Global Alliance
Established in 2023, the Nature Facility is a multi-partner trust fund between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Facility is also joined by Cartier for Nature as its first donor.
Leveraging UNDP's extensive portfolio, The Nature Facility benefits from lessons learnt from similar initiatives (such as the Global Fund for Coral Reefs) and has unique opportunities to scale successful programmes from its vertical fund portfolio including BIOFIN.
Through BIOFIN's existing work in 40 countries to create tailored Biodiversity Finance Plans that help countries transition to a nature positive economy, The Nature Facility will support the piloting of identified solutions that protect nature but also create jobs and combat climate change.
Join the Facility
Through the Nature Facility, we can invest in the protection and restoration of Earth’s natural wonders.Together, we can build a powerful legacy for future generations.
For information on how to join the Nature Facility, please contact:
Penny.Stock@undp.org or Erica.Fleet@undp.org
