LocationsSida-UNDP programme helps align finance flows with nature-positive objectives
Driving finance towards increased investment in Nature
August 19, 2025
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Following the COVID crisis, the awareness of nature being vital to economic development has been at the forefront of thinking. International efforts such as the Convention on Biological Diversity have underscored the need for aligning public and private finance with the concept of nature-positive development - development where natural capital regenerates at a rate which maintains the planetary balance.
UNDP and Swedish development agency Sida– now in the sixth year of the Sida-UNDP Programme on Environment and Climate Change – are using this increased awareness as they work together.
Coral conservation in Niue.
UNDP Niue
“A core component of the Sida-UNDP programme is to drive finance away from natural capital depletion and increase investment in Nature” said Maria Vink from Sida. “We supported the establishment of the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), strengthened the Biodiversity Finance (BIOFIN) initiative in 41 countries, and backed the formation of the Biodiversity Credit Alliance (BCA). Furthermore, our Programme assisted in setting up a funding mechanism focused on coral reefs.”
Between 2020 and 2022, Sida, along with the UK and Italy governments, supported the ideation and development of the Taskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). TNFD provides companies with a global framework to measure, manage, and report on their nature-related risks and opportunities. TNFD now has over 500 financial institutions and corporates signed up as early adopters of its framework, representing $6.5 trillion in market capitalization and $17.7 trillion of assets under management.
Sean Chinn/Oean Image Bank
Bringing finance directly into actions to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services is the aim of the Biodiversity Finance Initiative. BIOFIN works with governments, civil society, vulnerable communities, and the private sector in 133 countries to catalyse investments in nature, with the intention to not only protect biodiversity, but let it flourish, as biodiversity underpins peoples’ wellbeing.
The Convention on Biological Diversity suggested the use of innovative instruments such as biodiversity credits to boost private sector investment. New markets need a proper start, which is why Sida supported the UN-backed Biodiversity Credit Alliance (BCA) which develops integrity guardrails for these emerging markets, where a voluntary biodiversity credit represents a measured and evidence-based unit of positive biodiversity outcome. BCA was launched during the CBD COP 15 in 2022 by UNDP, the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and Sida. The Alliance attracted unprecedented level of interest at COP 16 in 2024, where it presented high integrity principles for voluntary biodiversity credit markets. Today, over 400 organizations are part of the BCA Forum.
"BCA allows companies, non-government organizations, academics and most importantly – indigenous peoples and local communities, to work together to define rules for nature credit markets.” said Maxim Vergeichik, Senior Nature Economist at UNDP. “With proper rules, biodiversity credits have the potential to complement regulations and traditional funding sources for biodiversity.”
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Complementing policy-making platforms such as TNFD and BCA, Sida also supported innovative on-the-ground investment which blends public and private flows.
Sida was the first donor to support the establishment and operationalisation of the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR), a UN multi-partner trust fund seeking to save priority resilient coral reefs across the world. Set up in 2020, the blended-finance Fund now has $90 million in grants and $135 million in investments available with further funds anticipated in 2025. UNDP is leading GFCR programmes in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Gulf of Aqaba (Jordan) and Maldives.
Iconic species such as tigers represent the pinnacle of the ecological system and their safety therefore defines the long-term resilience of vast landscapes. In Malaysia and Thailand, the Tiger Landscape Investment Fund, triggered with assistance of Sida, Cartier for Nature, and the Government of Germany, is rolling out support for local private sector investments into SMEs that contribute to the protection, restoration, and sustainable management of Tiger habitats.
“The Sida Programme has contributed greatly to the development of UNDP’s Nature Pledge” said UNDP Nature Hub Director Midori Paxton. “The Pledge is our corporate commitment to work with partners to make real progress to halt biodiversity loss, to protect and restore our lands and seas, and put nature on a path to recovery for the benefit of all life on earth.
We’ll do that through 3 Transformational Shifts in Values and Narratives; Policy and Practice; and Economics and Finance, where we need a transition from a nature-negative to a nature-positive economy. Sida’s support in innovating in nature finance has given us a strong start for achieving this transition.”
