The little book of investing in nature

Highlights

• The focus has shifted from debating whether to save nature to how to fund it sustainably.
• There’s broad interest in halting biodiversity loss across government, business, and civil society.
• The book offers a framework to compare financing options, aiming to ensure biodiversity conservation is economically viable and comprehensive.

Shifting the conversation from saving nature to paying for it

As the impacts of human activity on the natural world have become increasingly clear in recent years, alongside human dependences on a healthy environment, the conversation has shifted from “Should we save nature?” to “How do we pay for it?”. Few in government or business today doubt the inherent value of nature or the importance of managing it sustainably. The interest in halting the loss of biodiversity is enormous and is coming from unexpected quarters. Meeting after international meeting closes with strongly worded calls to protect nature, and the dialogue among the public sector, business, and civil society has never been more active. But once economics rears its head, then the dialogue becomes muffled, and participants start shuffling papers and shifting their eyes nervously.

As the international community considers how to finance biodiversity protection for the next decade and beyond, The Little Book of Investing in Nature aims to help governments, NGOs, the private sector and others compare existing and future options for financing conservation in a clear and consistent way. To do so, this publication introduces an overarching framework that organises biodiversity financing mechanisms into the following categories: revenue generation, better delivery, expenditure realignment, avoidance of future expenditures, and catalysts. To facilitate comparison of the various available financing options within each category, the book uses a set of common criteria that are presented graphically with icons. A comprehensive biodiversity financing plan is likely to include options from more than one of the categories.

This book is designed to serve not only the needs of the public sector, business and civil society actors in developing practical financing solutions for biodiversity, but also as a survey of the variety of mechanisms currently in use in biodiversity finance for those who want to understand how to invest in nature in a manner that helps protect our biosphere rather than damage it.