Closing the US$700 billion annual biodiversity finance gap is not just a necessity, but also a major economic opportunity. Nature-based solutions (NbS) — such as sustainable forestry, regenerative agriculture, wetland restoration, and coastal protection — are emerging as investable opportunities with distinct risk–return profiles. They can enhance portfolio diversification while delivering environmental and social benefits and have the potential to make an essential contribution to climate mitigation by delivering emissions reductions of up to 10 gigatonnes of CO₂ per year.
Through engagement opportunities and a wide range of resources, UNEP FI supports banks, insurers, and investors to identify practical ways to invest with nature and support the transition to nature-positive economies. This includes nature credits, green bonds and financing for nature-based solutions that protect, restore, and sustainably manage ecosystems while delivering benefits for both people and nature.
Growing ment for nature: Highlighting some of the opportunities available to financial institutions
The Revenues for Nature community of practice
Revenues for Nature (R4N) is a global project supporting the implementation of Target 19 of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to mobilize US$200 billion per year for biodiversity by catalyzing private‑sector finance at scale for nature restoration and conservation.
The R4N community of practice is a joint initiative of Green Finance Institute Hive, UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative, and UNEP FI that brings together financial actors and other stakeholders to develop innovative solutions for financing biodiversity and nature restoration. It fosters partnerships across local, national, regional, and global levels, connecting private‑sector nature‑finance strategies with government‑led National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans. Participation is open, free of charge, and includes access to webinars, shared resources, and regular project updates.
Suitable for banks, insurers, investors, corporates, governments, and local communities. Read more and register interest to join the community.
Explore webinars in this series:
Scaling nature markets and biodiversity credits
This session explored how private finance can engage with nature markets and biodiversity credits to help scale capital for nature—while ensuring integrity and meaningful impact.
Marine financing and revenue pathways for coastal and ocean ecosystems
This session explored how marine finance and blue bonds can unlock credible revenue pathways to scale nature-positive investment and support national implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
Revenues, scalability and replicability for nature outcomes: 5 lessons for policymakers and investors
Drawing on emerging insights from models supported under R4N and global case studies, the discussion shared early lessons on aligning ecological outcomes, social benefits, and investor returns.
Bridging public and private efforts: Collaborative models for financing nature
This webinar explored successful models of public-private co-development for nature-related finance, showcasing how financial institutions, governments, and corporate actors are jointly designing and scaling financial mechanisms.
Mobilising private sector capital for sustainable and resilient supply chains
This webinar explored how corporates, investors, and the private sector are shaping financial mechanisms that deliver tangible benefits for nature across supply chains.
Indigenous and investor shareholdership in revenue generation for nature for GBF Target 19
This webinar explored how investors, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are co-developing financial mechanisms that generate benefits for both biodiversity and sustainable livelihoods.
Public-private finance flowing into GBF Target 19 – trends and innovation
This webinar builds on key insights from experiences with governments and financial institutions, as well as the R4N guidebooks. It provides practical frameworks and case studies on financing mechanisms that bridge public and private finance.
Biodiversity finance: exploring public and private finance opportunities for NBSAPs
This webinar supports CBD Parties to better understand the possible application of public and private finance to their NBSAP revision, update and implementation. BIOFIN and UNEP FI provide an overview of the partnership and its goals.
Nature Bonds: Catalyzing Investment for Biodiversity
This webinar explored the transformative potential of nature bonds as innovative instruments fostering public-private partnerships. It highlights how these bonds can support CBD Parties in revising or updating their NBSAPs ahead of COP16.
The Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative
The global ocean economy is valued at approximately US$2.5 trillion annually and doubled in size between 1995 and 2020, making it equivalent to the world’s seventh-largest economy. The Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative is a UN-convened global community that sits at the intersection of private finance and ocean health. It supports the implementation of the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles by mobilising the financial sector to align investments with the long-term sustainability of ocean resources.
Bringing together financial institutions and partner organizations, the Initiative enables peer learning, shares practical guidance and good practices, and identifies opportunities to scale financing for a sustainable and resilient blue economy.
Suitable for banks, insurers and investors, as well as partner organizations. Read more and join the community.
The Good Food Finance Network
The transition to sustainable food systems represents a $350 billion investment opportunity and can generate US$4.5 trillion in new market opportunities each year.
The Good Food Finance Network brings together financial actors to catalyze capital and create an enabling financial environment for the transition to sustainable and just food systems, enabling finance actors to leverage the economic opportunities of the food systems transition.
Suitable for banks, insurers, investors and capital market influencers. Read more and join the network.
Investing with Nature webinar series
Investing in NbS can help financial institutions mitigate risks associated with nature loss and climate change, while supporting progress toward the Paris Agreement and the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). To help institutions identify practical NbS investment opportunities, UNEP FI developed a webinar series exploring investable pathways across ecosystems, providing direct guidance and materials to support institutions at the early stages of their nature journey. This webinar series is now complete and recordings can be found below.
Explore webinars in this series:
Investing with nature: An introduction to nature-based solutions
This webinar provided an introduction to NbS investing, including the definition of NbS, its landscape, financing gap, challenges, currently available products and opportunities for financial institutions.
Deep dive on nature-based solutions in ocean and coastal ecosystems
This webinar provided the audience with perspectives and tangible examples from the private and civil society sectors on their experiences investing and facilitating investments in the oceans and coastal ecosystem space.
Deep dive on nature-based solutions in forests
The webinar provided the audience with an overview of why NbS in forests are important, before delving into examples of how such investments can be taken up by financial institutions, as well as a discussion on the challenges and opportunities present in the field.
Deep dive on nature-based solutions in freshwater
Experts on freshwater and financial professionals with experience in freshwater NbS shared their knowledge, experience, and insights into investing in different types of NbS in freshwater ecosystems.
Deep dive on nature-based solutions in farmlands
A group of panelists from the public and private sectors shared their perspectives and experiences on NbS in farmlands, exploring different angles such as gender, inclusion, and smallholder farmers.
Deep dive on nature-based solutions in urban areas
A panel of experts shared their expertise on the current state of NbS in urban areas, looking at the financial opportunities as well as giving current examples of NbS projects that are driving greener and more sustainable cities.
Looking forward: Scaling investments in nature-based solutions
As the concluding session of this webinar series, this event highlighted learnings from previous sessions and explored the future of NbS investing in the private financial sector.
