We are proud to announce that Agence Française De Développement (AFD) and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) have committed €4M to provide support to the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) and its 12 affiliated National Trust Funds through innovative and sustainable financing tools to protect biodiversity. The CBF and its partner national conservation trust funds (NCTFs) together form the Caribbean Sustainable Finance Architecture. This Architecture has been key in supporting the original goals of the Caribbean Challenge Initiative.
Firstly, to efficiently conserve and manage at least 20% of the marine and coastal environment by 2020, and secondly, to establish sustainable long-term financing mechanisms. In addition, the Architecture also supports the goals of other regional and international commitments.
Building on what the accomplishments of the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF), the Caribbean Regional Architecture for Biodiversity (CRAB) project has 3 objectives: i) to strengthen the financial and operational capacities of the Architecture by creating new opportunities of financing, especially for the conservation of biodiversity, ii) to position the Architecture as a key player and facilitate regional approaches to biodiversity issues and iii) to reinforce its capacity to respond to local and regional conservation needs, including promoting the blue economy and strengthening the recovery capacity of countries in emergency responses
In acknowledging the new partnership, the Chief Executive Officer Karen McDonald Gayle highlighted that, “The CRAB project is a culmination of years of design and development with the Government of France. We are very pleased to be able to facilitate the work of AFD and FFEM in the Caribbean region in the area of sustainable financing. We look forward not only to the continued consolidation and development of the NCTFs in the 12 Caribbean islands we are already working in, but I am equally excited by the new reach into our French Caribbean neighbours.”
Philippe La Cognata, AFD Regional Director in the Atlantic Ocean noted that “Conserving nature while providing a sustainable development for a growing human population is possible! What a sustainable future requires though is fast action. To reach our objectives, the CRAB initiative, financed by Agence Française de Développement and the French Facility for Global Environment, alongside KfW, aims to develop innovative and sustainable financing tools to create new opportunities in the Caribbean region for biodiversity protection.” This project plans to have far reaching impacts and the partner organizations have given their full commitment to ensuring its success.
The CRAB project will be implemented over 4 years. For more information on the CBF, go to www.caribbeanbiodiversityfund.org, www.afd.fr/en, www.ffem.fr/en
About AFD
Agence Française de Développement (AFD) implements France’s policy on international development and solidarity. Through its financing of NGOs and the public sector, as well as its research and publications, AFD supports and accelerates transitions towards a fairer, more resilient world. It also provides training in sustainable development (at AFD Campus) and other awareness-raising activities in France.
With their partners, AFD is building shared solutions with and for the people of the Global South. Their teams are at work on more than 4,000 projects in the field, in the French Overseas Departments and Territories, in 115 countries and in regions in crisis. AFD strives to protect global public goods – promoting a stable climate, biodiversity and peace, as well as gender equality, education and healthcare. In this way, they contribute to the commitment of France and the French people to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Towards a world in common.
About FFEM
The French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) was created by the French Government in 1994 following the first Earth Summit, to implement sustainable development projects that integrate the preservation of global public goods, international solidarity and innovation in developing and emerging countries.
FFEM promotes innovative solutions in the fields of biodiversity, climate, international waters, land degradation, including deforestation, chemical pollutants and the stratospheric ozone layer.
All FFEM-funded projects are reported as Official Development Assistance. For over 25 years, more than 350 projects have already been financed, in over 120 countries, including 69% located in Africa and the Mediterranean.
About the CBF
Established in 2012, the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) is the realization of a bold vision to create reliable, long-term funding for conservation and sustainable development in the Caribbean region. Working as an umbrella fund with a flexible structure to implement innovative solutions for resource mobilization at the regional level, the CBF currently has two programs:

• Conservation Finance Program, anchored by a US$80 million endowment fund;
• Climate Change Program, anchored by a US$50 million sinking fund focused on Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA).

There will be the role out of another program, the Advancing Circular Economy which is valued at US$30 million.