The Urgent Need to Accelerate Biodiversity Action and How We Work to Address It

By Anders Holm, CEO at Hempel Foundation.

In recent years, across the landscapes we support, I’ve visited many of the 22 organizations we partner with — organizations that work tirelessly and selflessly to protect some of the world’s most important remaining biodiversity. I always ask them how we, as a foundation, can help them become even better at what they do and support them to work at a larger scale. The answer to that question lies at the heart of our strategy.

The Case for Investing in Biodiversity Conservation

Biodiversity refers to the variety of life on Earth. It includes all living organisms, the ecosystems they form, and the genetic differences within and between species. So when we lose natural areas, we lose biodiversity.

We see biodiversity loss as one of the most pressing global challenges of our time. The statistics are stark: global wildlife populations have plummeted by an alarming 73% since 1970.

The case for investing in biodiversity conservation is both clear and compelling.

There’s a rational reason: we depend on nature. Healthy ecosystems provide invaluable services — from regulating climate to purifying water. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), half of the world’s GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature. And according to the Planetary Boundaries framework, biodiversity is one of the Earth system processes where we have most severely crossed the safe limit. This puts the stability of our planet at risk — and ultimately threatens our own existence.

But there’s also a moral reason: we share this planet with millions of other species. Two million have been described, and half of them are under threat. That’s not right.

Given the pace at which we are losing natural areas and biodiversity every single day, there is a critical need to accelerate efforts to stop this loss. Fundamentally, that means addressing the root causes of biodiversity loss, prioritizing more financial resources to halt the decline, and directing those resources where they will be most effective.

Our Strategy

The world’s biodiversity is not evenly distributed. Tropical rainforests hold by far the highest biodiversity on Earth due to their warm, stable climates. But they are also located in countries with the lowest GDPs — places where there are many other competing priorities, including economic development.

That’s why the Hempel Foundation strategy focuses on landscapes that are richest in biodiversity, where threats are greatest, and where there are the fewest resources to address them.

To put this into perspective: we currently support 21 tropical forest landscapes that cover 0.07% of the earth’s land surface, yet they are home to over 30% of all bird species, 20% of all mammal species, and 10% of all reptile and amphibian species on earth. They are highly threatened with deforestation, underfunded, and overlooked.

Our strategy has two core objectives:

• Objective 1:Increase the supply of cost-effective, scalable conservation efforts by empowering local and national organizations to better protect critical landscapes.
• Objective 2:Enhance the demand for robust biodiversity conservation by strengthening data, evidence, and innovative financing solutions.

Increasing Supply of Organizations Delivering Impact on the Ground

We focus mostly on organizations that are highly specialized and have strong potential to deliver scalable impact. These are organizations with proven conservation models, strong local relationships, credible track records, and the leadership and team capacity to implement effective landscape strategies at scale.

We try to support them to work more effectively, and at greater scale. Often, this includes providing early-stage funding to bring key partners together to develop a shared landscape strategy. We then help strengthen their capacity to deliver on that strategy. Finally, we work to create visibility and evidence that can attract additional funding and support.

One example of this is the Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania. Part of the ancient Eastern Arc Mountain chain, they contain nearly 5% of all bird species and 3% of all mammal species on earth and more than 2,500 plant species. More than a quarter million local people have livelihoods directly linked to the forests. Yet the landscape is threatened and only few resources available to address them. Through our partnership with STEP (Southern Tanzania Elephant Program), we supported the creation of the Udzungwas Landscape Strategy, created by a coalition of conservation partners. We now fund this coalition as they deliver this shared strategy, which reduces deforestation, restores degraded ecosystems, empowers local communities to manage their natural resources sustainably, and creates new sources of conservation finance to sustain the landscape in the long-term. We are also helping to further strengthen the organizational capacity of our core partner STEP, to allow them to be even more impactful in their landscape conservation activities.

By supporting these interconnected initiatives – landscape conservation and restoration, sustainable financing, and organizational capacity-building – we aim to help create a highly effective and sustainable model for biodiversity conservation.

Enhancing Demand for Biodiversity Conservation

To strengthen demand for cost-effective biodiversity conservation we collaborate with regional and global partners to improve the quality of data and evidence available to decision-makers, and to champion new financing flows and models.

Better data enables governments and other stakeholders to identify gaps, prioritize actions, and invest strategically in what works. To guide this work and illuminate overlooked biodiversity hotspots, we’re currently investing in a new initiative to map the world’s most biodiverse and threatened places. This will go beyond traditional mapping by incorporating funding levels, conservation costs, and human reliance — identifying where support is most urgently needed and where it can achieve the greatest results.

Recognizing the vast scale of funding required, we also actively work to promote new financing flows and models. We require our landscape partners to integrate income-generating activities into their strategies to reduce long-term dependence on philanthropy. In parallel, we support innovative solutions that can unlock new revenue streams or dramatically reduce the cost of conservation. One example of this is Sounds Right with Un Live.

What’s Next

While progress is being made on many of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the world’s biodiversity is still heading in the wrong direction. We share the Earth with billions of other species—and with the many generations to come.

We have supported our partners to work in twelve countries to protect some of the world’s most important remaining natural areas. We are seeing highly skilled and talented organizations in action, and we remain committed to helping them do even more to preserve the planet’s biodiversity—for the sake of us all.

• See our Biodiversity Partners
• Read the full blog series