Community-based approaches to biodiversity finance

Abstract

Indigenous peoples and local communities live in, manage, and own large regions and require investment to finance their biodiversity management strategies. Their approaches are proactive and powerful, with clear agency to drive futures that include consistent biodiversity finance. Our literature review and illustrative case studies highlight five factors that influence how communities forge pathways based on their world views and knowledge systems, underpinned by recognition of rights, compensation for damage by colonizers, and establishment of organizations with culturally valid governance to leverage biodiversity finance. Global actors, such as the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, need to understand the history and characteristics of these pathways and tailor their finance to suit — for example, to finance governance and organizational development for some and protected area management for others.