Nature and biodiversity finance: who funds conservation, restoration and nature-positive business

Under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, governments agreed to mobilise at least $200 billion a year for biodiversity from all sources by 2030, including international flows to developing countries of at least $20 billion a year by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030.

For project developers, the practical point is that most of this money will still arrive through public programmes, conservation trust funds and blended funds — not as open calls from private investors. Knowing which channel a funder uses saves months.

Each source suits a different kind of project and revenue model:

• Conservation and restoration grants from global funds, bilateral donors and foundations — for protected areas, community conservation and early-stage restoration.
• Conservation trust funds — national or regional endowments, often capitalised by donors or debt-for-nature swaps, that issue grants to local organisations every year.
• Results-based payments for reduced deforestation, usually agreed with national or sub-national governments rather than individual projects.
• Blended investment funds that lend to or invest in sustainable forestry, agroforestry and deforestation-free supply chains, often with a first-loss layer from donors.
• Nature-based carbon credits sold to corporate buyers and intermediaries, sometimes with upfront pre-finance.
• Biodiversity credits — an early market with few committed buyers, best treated as additional upside.

Several nature funders on our database accept proposals or invest in companies directly. The GEF Small Grants Programme funds community and civil-society organisations through national coordinators. Investment funds such as the &Green Fund, the eco.business Fund, Mirova's nature strategies and Conservation International Ventures finance businesses whose models reduce deforestation or restore land, each with its own geographic and ticket-size limits.

National conservation trust funds — for example BIOFUND in Mozambique and the Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity of Madagascar — run regular grant cycles for local organisations. These are often the most reachable source for smaller projects.

The Global Environment Facility and its Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, the Central African Forest Initiative and most bilateral forest programmes fund national programmes. Projects reach this money through a government focal point, an implementing agency or a partner organisation that holds the grant.

If your project fits one of these programmes, the route in is to identify the agency running the national programme and position your project as a delivery partner, not to apply to the fund itself.

Screening teams look for the same building blocks:

• Secure land or resource rights, or a formal agreement with the community or government that holds them.
• Measurable outcomes — hectares protected or restored, species indicators, or verified emission reductions.
• A long-term financing plan that does not depend on a single grant.
• Community consent and benefit-sharing that is documented, not assumed.
• For investment funds: a revenue model, such as timber, crops, tourism fees or carbon credits, that can repay capital.