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Riviera Maya. Photo by Andrew Snyder.
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Donors

All conservation donors (Philanthropists, Foundations, bilateral and multilateral, etc.) seek to ensure that their investments have the greatest impact for biodiversity. KBAs provide a useful tool to guide investment decisions as they identify sites of global biodiversity significance.

Major partners in KBA Conservation

Among the 13 KBA Partners, two are primarily donor agencies that support conservation of KBAs:

Global Environment Facility (GEF)

Global Environment Facility (GEF)

As a KBA partner, the GEF has stated in its GEF 7, 8 and 9 strategies that “...new protected areas established with GEF support must be globally significant, as defined by the Key Biodiversity Area standard” and is encouraging countries which receive GEF financing to identify and conserve KBAs.

Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF)

Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF)

The CEPF centres its entire programme on conserving KBAs. It has been instrumental in identifying many KBAs now listed in the World Database of KBAs. CEPF supports projects worldwide that manage KBAs sustainably, protect threatened species, and build the capacity of local organisations and communities.

Donors using KBAs to guide and monitor investments

Other donors are funding the identification and conservation of KBAs, recognising the importance of targeting actions on globally important sites and populations to achieve the greatest return on conservation investments and halt extinction.

  • Bezos Earth Fund:  The Bezos Earth Fund has provided significant funding to support three countries in the Congo Basin and four in the Andes to make comprehensive assessments of their KBAs. They are also considering providing similar support for four countries in the Amazon.
  • USAID: The United States Agency for International Development contributed significantly to KBA identification and conservation across several countries.
  • Franklinia Foundation: This foundation measures its success by the number of KBAs established specifically for tree species.
  • Additional Donors: Many other organisations are also investing in KBA-related projects, recognising that focusing on globally important sites yields the greatest conservation returns.

While donor support has already driven substantial progress, the next years will require even greater investment and collaboration to effectively identify KBAs worldwide. Results from the eleven countries that have already made a comprehensive assessment of their KBAs indicates we are missing about half our KBAs elsewhere. Supporting comprehensive assessments across all countries would develop a detailed blueprint for global conservation planning—one that is more comprehensive and effective than ever before.

Supporting KBAs

Our biggest ambition over the next 10 years is to ensure that every country on Earth has fully re-assessed and updated its Key Biodiversity Area network. To make this happen, we urgently need funding to support local and global efforts.

Why national-level funding is needed:

  1. Local Coordination: Funding will help establish and support KBA National Coordination Groups (NCGs) in each country. These groups are essential for assessing KBAs across various species and ecosystems
  2. Monitoring and Reassessment: We need funding to re-assess and monitor existing KBA networks.
  3. Conservation Efforts: Moving KBAs into 30 x 30 planning such that funds will be available to directly support the conservation of both existing and newly identified KBAs, ensuring their protection.
  4. National Planning: Funding will aid in developing National Spatial Plans that incorporate KBAs. These plans will guide land and sea use, mainstreaming important sites for biodiversity across government sectors,  while minimizing negative impacts on biodiversity, ensuring KBAs are considered in all government decisions.

Why international-level funding is needed:

  1. Supporting the KBA Secretariat: The KBA Secretariat underpins the global KBA Programme. Funding will help support its operations, including provision of technical support and training to countries, and review and confirmation of sites in the World Database of KBAs (WDKBA).
  2. Maintaining the World Database of KBAs: Funding is needed to develop and maintain the World Database of KBAs (WDKBA) and the KBA website. This ensures that KBA data is up-to-date and accessible to all.
  3. International Engagement: Funding will enable us to engage with international processes, like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure that KBAs are used by countries to target and monitor their conservation actions.