Global Biodiversity Goals Face Significant Funding Shortfall
The international community is falling billions of dollars short of the financial commitments needed to achieve the ambitious global biodiversity target of protecting at least 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030, commonly known as the 30×30 goal. This stark reality has been highlighted by a new study and an accompanying interactive dashboard unveiled at the seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) in Nairobi.
The assessment, conducted by Indufor and supported by Campaign for Nature, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Rainforest Foundation Norway, reveals a concerning gap between current international funding for nature protection and the substantial sums required. While international funding directed towards helping developing nations conserve nature has seen a significant increase of 150% over the past decade, reaching just over $1 billion in 2024, developed nations are still $4 billion shy of meeting their funding obligations essential for realizing the 30×30 target.
The Urgency of the Funding Gap
Anders Haug Larsen, advocacy director at Rainforest Foundation Norway, emphasized the critical nature of this shortfall. “Increasing international support is crucial to achieve the target of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2030, as agreed to in the Global Biodiversity Framework,” he stated. “We are currently far off track, both in mobilizing resources and protecting nature.” Larsen added, “We now have a short window of opportunity, where governments, donors, and actors on the ground, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities, need to work together to enhance finance and actions for rights-based nature protection.”
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted in 2022, set forth the commitment to safeguard at least 30% of the planet’s terrestrial and marine areas by 2030. Crucially, the framework also acknowledged the immense financial investment required to achieve this objective. Previous global modeling suggested that the expansion and effective management of protected areas alone would necessitate an annual global investment ranging from $103 billion to $178 billion.
Recognizing that many of the planet’s most biodiverse and unprotected regions are situated in countries with limited public budgets and competing development priorities, international finance is identified as a pivotal element for the equitable and effective implementation of the 30×30 goal. Target 19 of the GBF specifically aims to mobilize at least $200 billion annually for biodiversity conservation, with a dedicated commitment of at least $30 billion per year to developing countries by 2030.
These funds are earmarked for a variety of essential activities, including the legal establishment of new protected areas, the provision of training and resources for rangers tasked with safeguarding existing protected and conserved areas, and crucial support for Indigenous groups and local communities who are often at the forefront of conservation efforts.
Trends in International Funding
The study, titled “State of International 30×30 Funding,” indicates that support for protected and conserved areas (PCAs) in developing countries has grown from $396 million in 2014 to over $1.1 billion in 2024. Between 2022 and 2024, average annual funding saw a substantial 70% increase compared to the preceding four-year period. The philanthropic sector, in particular, demonstrated a notable surge in funding, increasing its contributions by 89% during this timeframe.
Despite this progress, the report projects that international funding specifically for 30×30 initiatives needs to reach an estimated $6 billion annually by 2030. At the current rate of growth, international funders are anticipated to miss this target by $4 billion each year. To close this significant gap, the report suggests that the annual growth rate of funding would need to accelerate to 33%.
“Achieving the global 30×30 goal requires not just ambition but equally bold investment in nature,” commented Tom Dillon, senior vice president for Environment and Crosscutting Initiatives at The Pew Charitable Trusts. “This analysis highlights a major shortfall between available and necessary funding for lasting protection. Bridging that gap will demand unprecedented cooperation across governments, investors, philanthropy, business, and Indigenous and local communities to develop new financial models that reward the protection of nature.”
Concentration of Funding and Regional Disparities
A key finding of the report is the concentration of international funding. Since 2022, a mere five bilateral donors and multilateral mechanisms have accounted for 54% of all tracked 30×30 disbursements. These major contributors include Germany, The World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the European Union, and the United States. This reliance on a limited number of key actors renders funding vulnerable to political shifts and evolving priorities.
While funding is directed towards lower-income countries, a significant disparity exists for small island developing states and other oceanic regions, which remain severely underfunded by international financial flows. Africa has experienced the fastest growth in international PCA funding, receiving nearly half (48%) of all tracked flows by 2024. In stark contrast, small island developing states collectively receive only $48 million annually (4.5%) in international 30×30 funding, despite being explicitly prioritized within the GBF under Target 19a.
Furthermore, the majority of international funding, an overwhelming 82%, is allocated to strengthening existing protected areas, with relatively little directed towards the expansion of protected areas. The funding also tends to favor conventional protected areas over those managed under the stewardship of Indigenous Peoples or other local communities.
Marine ecosystems, which constitute 71% of the planet, received a disproportionately small share of international funding, just 14%. The funding per square kilometer of marine protection has remained largely static since 2014, with financial flows barely keeping pace with the expansion of marine PCAs in developing countries.
The Imperative for Marine Conservation and Indigenous-Led Initiatives
Brian O’Donnell, director of Campaign for Nature, underscored the urgent need to bolster marine conservation finance. “There is a clear need to ramp up marine conservation finance, especially to Small Island Developing States which receive only a small fraction of the funding dedicated to other regions,” he stated. “Meeting the 30×30 target is essential to prevent extinctions, achieve climate goals, and ensure the services that nature provides endure, including storm protection and clean air and water.”
The findings presented in the report and dashboard serve as a potent reminder of the critical need for deeper commitments from all stakeholders – governments, philanthropic organizations, multilateral institutions, and the private sector – to dramatically scale up investment before the 2030 deadline. Failure to do so poses a severe risk of not meeting the 30×30 target, with significant and far-reaching consequences for global biodiversity, climate protection efforts, human well-being, and national economies.
The newly launched 30×30 Funding Dashboard aims to bridge the gap between financial commitments and strategic action. It is designed to help identify and direct resources to the regions and activities where they are most needed to achieve progress toward Target 3 of conserving 30% of land, water, and seas.
Michael Owen, a study author from Indufor North America LLC, highlighted the importance of transparency and data accessibility. “To date, there has been limited public analysis of international funding flows for protected and conserved areas,” Owen explained. “Transparency is uneven across donors, and the data needed to understand 30×30 funding are fragmented across sources, often without the resolution required to track real progress.”
He further elaborated on the dashboard’s purpose: “Our goal for the 30×30 Funding Dashboard is to centralize these data, enable users to view funding at the project level, and provide a clear view of top-line trends in the accompanying report. We hope this analysis encourages more donors to strengthen transparency and accountability as we move toward the deadline for Target 3.”
