Policy paper

Biodiverse Landscapes Fund: policy information

Updated 22 January 2024

The UK’s Biodiverse Landscapes Fund (BLF) aims to reduce poverty, protect and restore biodiversity and lessen the impact of climate change in six environmentally critical landscapes across the globe.

The £100 million Fund, first announced by the Prime Minister at the UN General Assembly 2019, will run from 2022 to 2029.

Applications for the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund have now closed.

Aims of the Fund

The Biodiverse Landscapes Fund has 3 core aims:

• people - to develop economic opportunities through investment in nature in support of climate adaptation and resilience and poverty reduction
• nature - to slow, halt or reverse biodiversity loss in globally significant regions for biodiversity
• climate - to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and safeguard natural carbon sinks

It will meet these aims by:

• reducing poverty and creating sustainable economic development for communities living in, and dependent upon, environmentally precious landscapes
• protecting and restoring ecosystems and biologically diverse landscapes
• helping to mitigate climate change by preserving carbon sinks and ecosystems
• addressing the causes of environmental degradation
• supporting national and local governments, park authorities and communities to achieve long-term sustainable management and use of natural resources

Funding will be shared across the landscapes according to need.

Background

The planet is facing a dual crisis of rapid climate change and unprecedented biodiversity loss. Global rates of species extinction are up to 1,000 times higher than the average over the past several million years and are accelerating. Around 25% of plant and animal species are threatened by human actions, with a million species facing extinction, many within decades. The destruction of mangroves, peatlands and tropical forests for agriculture and other uses contributes to 13% of total human CO2 emissions.

Biodiversity loss is also a development issue. 70% of the world’s poor live in rural areas and derive 80% of their living requirements from natural resources. The poverty faced by these communities is exacerbated by the degradation of their environment, which is both a cause and a consequence of climate change.

The BLF will therefore help address the triple challenge of poverty, biodiversity loss, and the climate emergency.

Landscape locations

The BLF will support work in 6 of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, spanning 18 countries:

• The Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area, covering areas of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe
• Mesoamerica, covering areas of Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras
• Western Congo Basin, covering areas of Cameroon, Gabon and Republic of Congo
• Andes Amazon, covering areas of Ecuador and Peru
• Lower Mekong, covering areas of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam
• Madagascar

Landscapes have been selected on the basis of:

• the global importance of their biodiversity
• their potential to act as carbon sinks
• the economic and livelihood needs of their resident populations

Fund structure

Delivery partners

Activities and interventions in each landscape will be delivered through a consortium of delivery partners. Consortia will be headed by a lead delivery partner which will enter into a grant funding agreement with the Fund Manager (see next section) and will assume responsibility for all members of its consortium.

Delivery partners have been selected through a series of open grant competitions, administered by the Fund Manager, which ran from mid-2022 to early 2023.

So far, grant funding agreements have been signed for 5 landscapes:

• Madagascar: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
• Lower Mekong: Fauna and Flora International
• Mesoamerica: Wildlife Conservation Society
• Western Congo Basin: Zoological Society of London
• Andes-Amazon: Practical Action

Fund Manager

Defra has procured PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) as a Fund Manager to administer the BLF. The Fund Manager will be responsible for:

• general programme administration
• running grant competitions for delivery partners
• holding grant agreements with lead delivery partners in each landscape
• disbursement of funds
• oversight of consortia and activities
• provision of strategic advice on the fund’s progress to Defra

The Fund Manager will also be responsible for collating monitoring data from lead delivery partners, storing that data on an e-platform and assessing progress of the delivery partners within the landscapes. The Fund Manager will collate and aggregate evidence from the lead delivery partners and Independent Evaluators (see next section) and co-ordinate regular learning cycles to facilitate an adaptive approach to the programme and projects.

Independent Evaluator

Defra has procured Oxford Policy Management and Itad in partnership as the fund’s Independent Evaluator who will be responsible for the evaluation of the BLF at both landscape and global levels.

The Independent Evaluator will provide inception reports for each landscape, will work with Delivery Partners to map the evidence base for their work, set the monitoring, evaluation and learning framework and support the production of a baseline.

The Independent Evaluator will provide regular developmental evidence and conduct mid-term and final evaluations at landscape and programme levels. These evaluations will support Defra to adopt an adaptive management approach to the BLF to ensure that the best outcomes and value for money can be achieved.

Contact

For more information on the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund and the grant competitions, please email: uk_biodiverse_landscapes_fund@pwc.com