Last October, countries agreed to establish the Cali Fund, a blended finance experiment that takes contributions from companies profiting from the use of biodiversity’s genetic data to develop products such as pharmaceuticals, biotech, and cosmetics — and funnels the money back to biodiversity conservation with at least 50% going to Indigenous groups. The agreement was one of the few successes of last year’s United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP16. On Feb. 25, as delegates gathered in Rome to complete unfinished business, the fund saw its official launch.
“Today’s launch is the culmination of multilateralism that delivers,” said the United Nations Environment Programme deputy executive director Elizabeth Mrema in a press release. “The ball is now in the court of businesses around the world. Those who pay into the Fund will go down in history as pioneers and will reap the benefits as the public increasingly recognizes the importance of giving back to nature.”
The fund is unlikely to receive donations this week, according to the information officer of the Secretariat on the Convention on Biological Diversity, David Ainsworth, and the first announcements are expected in the spring. “There are a number of firms that are exceedingly close to putting forward contributions,” he said at a Tuesday press conference in Rome, adding that “many of them are biotech start-up firms.” Philanthropies are also expected to contribute to the fund.
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
