For more than a decade, there was a demand for a regional voice to champion the Caribbean’s environmental challenges. The Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) answered that call.
Established in 2012 to create reliable, long-term funding for conservation and sustainable development in the Caribbean region. Today, the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) is a regional umbrella environmental fund that uses a flexible structure to implement innovative solutions and consolidate resource mobilization in the Caribbean through a range of financial instruments.
For more than a decade, there was a demand for a regional voice to champion the Caribbean’s environmental challenges. The Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) answered that call.
Established in 2012 to create reliable, long-term funding for conservation and sustainable development in the Caribbean region. Today, the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) is a regional umbrella environmental fund that uses a flexible structure to implement innovative solutions and consolidate resource mobilization in the Caribbean through a range of financial instruments.
How does the CBF finance projects?
The CBF provides financial resources through eligible National Conservation Trust Funds (NCTFs) who lead the grant-making process at the national level through its Conservation Finance Program. While its Climate Change via its Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Facility distributes grants directly to local, national and regional projects through competitive calls for proposals to support effective climate change adaptation measures in the marine and coastal zone of the insular Caribbean.
Funding from the Conservation Finance Program supports Protected Areas management, infrastructure within and outside Protected Areas for natural resources management, environmental education, community engagement, environmental policy, and research.
The projects financed by the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Facility under the Climate Change Program restore and rehabilitate ecosystems, reduce land-based stressors, install artificial reefs,and gray-green infrastructure (hybrid solutions) and implement measures to reduce pressures on ecosystems including physical damage to ecosystems.
How has the CBF impacted the Caribbean region?
The CBF has financed over 70 projects to the tune of US$13 million in 13 Caribbean countries through both of its programs. The Conservation Finance Program has implemented 55 projects while the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Facility has approved 19 projects from 2 Calls for Proposals.
Those projects resulted in 1.6 million hectares of protected areas, supported the recovery of coral reefs following damaging tropical cyclone events, and managed 10 marine protected areas as well as 11 terrestrial areas.
With US$50 million projected to be disbursed by the EbA Facility and the NCTFs at work in 10 countries, more projects are expected to mitigate against the environmental challenges impacting the region.
Who are the donors and partners of the CBF?
None of this work would be possible without the donors and partners who support the CBF’s mission to ensure continuous funding for conservation and sustainable development in the Caribbean. The CBF started with a donation from the German Development Bank (KfW) and since then, others have joined such as:
- Caribbean Challenge Initiative
- The World Bank’s Global Environment Facility
- United Nations Environment Programme
- United Nations Development Programme
- The Nature Conservancy
- Agence Française de Développement (AFD)
- French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM)
The Caribbean Biodiversity Fund’s visionary approach will result in the protection of the Caribbean’s vital natural resources at an unprecedented scale for generations to come. It will continue contributingto the achievement of international, regional, and national conservation targets and sustainable use of ecosystems which in turn, improves the quality of life for the Caribbean people.
By 2024, the CBF will be operating 6 sustainable financing programs and projects. The designs, conditionalities and geographic scope of which have already been formalized in agreements between the CBF and its donors.
