Metadata Factsheet

3. Goals And Targets Addressed

3a. Goal

Headline Indicator for Goal D Adequate means of implementation, including financial resources, capacity-building, technical and scientific cooperation, and access to and transfer of technology to fully implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework are secured and equitably accessible to all Parties, especially developing country Parties, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, progressively closing the biodiversity finance gap of $700 billion per year, and aligning financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2050 Vision for biodiversity. 

3b. Target

Headline indicator for Target 19 Substantially and progressively increase the level of financial resources from all sources, in an effective, timely and easily accessible manner, including domestic, international, public and private resources, in accordance with Article 20 of the Convention, to implement national biodiversity strategies and action plans, mobilizing at least $200 billion per year by 2030, including by: 

(a) Increasing total biodiversity related international financial resources from developed countries, including official development assistance, and from countries that voluntarily assume obligations of developed country Parties, to developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, to at least $20 billion per year by 2025, and to at least $30 billion per year by 2030;

(b) Significantly increasing domestic resource mobilization, facilitated by the preparation and implementation of national biodiversity finance plans or similar instruments according to national needs, priorities and circumstances;

(c) Leveraging private finance, promoting blended finance, implementing strategies for raising new and additional resources, and encouraging the private sector to invest in biodiversity, including through impact funds and other instruments;

(d) Stimulating innovative schemes such as payment for ecosystem services, green bonds, biodiversity offsets and credits, and benefit sharing mechanisms, with environmental and social safeguards;

(e) Optimizing co-benefits and synergies of finance targeting the biodiversity and climate crises;

(f) Enhancing the role of collective actions, including by indigenous peoples and local communities, Mother Earth centric actions and non-market-based approaches including community based natural resource management and civil society cooperation and solidarity aimed at the conservation of biodiversity;

(g) Enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of resource provision and use. 

5. Definitions, concepts and classifications

5a. Definition

The following definitions can be used to identify biodiversity expenditures:

UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) defines biodiversity national expenditures: A “biodiversity expenditure” is any expenditure whose purpose is to have a positive impact or to reduce or eliminate pressures on biodiversity. These biodiversity public expenditures include “direct” expenditures that have biodiversity as their principal purpose, or ‘causa finalis’, as well as “indirect” expenditures that have biodiversity as their secondary or joint purpose.

In terms of the categories, BIOFIN uses nine categories for recording primary and secondary expenditures: (1) Biodiversity awareness and knowledge, (2) Green economy, (3) Pollution management, (4) Sustainable use, (5) Biosafety, (6) Protected areas and OECM, (7) Restoration, (8) Access and benefit sharing, and (9) Biodiversity and development planning and finance.

The Classification of Environmental Purposes (CEP1) is an international statistics standard. It was adopted by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2024 and replaces the Classification of Environmental Protection Activities (CEPA; UN, 2000). It will be used for SEEA accounts, i.e., classifying activities, products, expenditure and other transactions related to environmental protection and management of natural resource (e.g. environmental protection and expenditure accounts [EPEA]). The most relevant “Division” (first level of disaggregation) for biodiversity is Division 05 Soil, surface and groundwater, biodiversity and forest. This covers activities, expenditures and products aimed at protection and remediation of soil and water, biodiversity and forests.

Division 05 is disaggregated into the following “groups” (level 2): 501 Protection of soil, surface and groundwater, 502 Protection of biodiversity and landscape, 503 Management of forest resources. The Group 502 Protection of biodiversity and landscapes covers activities, expenditures and products aimed at protecting and replenishment of wild fauna and flora, safeguarding and restoring their habitats, ecosystems of which they are part, natural or semi-natural terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems. Such activities, measures and products are included regardless of the type of areas involved (terrestrial, freshwater incl. wetlands, and marine areas) and whether they occur in areas which are classified as protected areas. Groups are further disaggregated into classes (level 3).

For further detail on the definitions of the other categories, see the CEP document.

The Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG) COFOG was developed in 1999 by the OECD and published by the UN Statistical Division as an international statistical standard for classifying the purposes (functions) of government activities. It classifies government expenditure data from the System of National Accounts by the purpose for which the funds are used. The first-level COFOG splits expenditure data into ten “functional” groups or sub-sectors of expenditures, and second-level COFOG further splits each first-level group into up to nine sub-groups. Group 5.4: “Protection of Biodiversity and Landscape” covers activities relating to the protection of fauna and flora species (including the reintroduction of extinct species and the recovery of species menaced by extinction), the protection of habitats (including the management of natural parks and reserves) and the protection of landscapes for their aesthetic values (including the rehabilitation of damaged landscapes to improve their aesthetic value). COFOG data can be used in the development of EPEA.

Note: international funding should not be accounted under D.2, even ODA that flows through national budgets.

5b. Method of computation

Countries will report the monetary value of domestic public expenditure in national currency per year during the CBD national reporting cycle.

Data should come directly from countries. Countries should include in their report what the reported expenditure includes, and which methodology and/or statistical framework has been used.

Developing country Parties should exclude from the reporting on domestic expenditures for biodiversity those flows that were supported by developed country Parties, or other providers of international public finance, such as multilateral institutions, or international private finance, such as private philanthropy (these flows are captured through the D.1 and D.3 indicators, respectively).

The reporting template will provide a dropdown menu for countries to select which data source and/or methodology was used to report for this headline indicator, including but not limited to the following:

BIOFIN: UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) developed a methodology providing guidance to estimate national expenditures for biodiversity; these included public, NGOs and donors. For the purpose of reporting on D2, countries will only report on public funding. The methodology focuses on recording primary and secondary expenditures in nine categories; for the latter, BIOFIN uses attribution rates to account for positive impact on biodiversity. These categories: (1) Biodiversity awareness and knowledge, (2) Green economy, (3) Pollution management, (4) Sustainable use, (4) Biosafety, (5) Protected areas and OECM, (6) Restoration, (7) Access and benefit sharing, and (9) Biodiversity and development planning and finance. It is highly recommended to report on expenditures and not planned budget.

CEP: The Classification of Environmental Purposes (CEP) will be used for SEEA accounts, i.e. classifying activities, products, expenditure and other transactions related to environmental protection and management of natural resource. The most relevant division is: 5 Soil, surface and groundwater, biodiversity and forest which encompasses 501 Protection of soil, surface and groundwater, 502 Protection of biodiversity and landscape, 503 Management of forest resources. A share of expenditure classified in other divisions may also be considered biodiversity relevant. Countries should indicate in their reporting which divisions/groups they have included and what, if any, coefficient they have applied (i.e. what share of expenditure they have counted as biodiversity expenditure).

Please note that CEP is an international statistical classification system which is replacing CEPA. The 27 EU countries are required to develop and report data from environmental protection and expenditure accounts (EPEA). The EPEA have been classified according to the CEPA and from 2025 should be classified according to the new CEP. The CEP is the first statistical classification of activities or products that allows mapping to “policy areas” such as for biodiversity (as well climate change mitigation, circular economy, etc.). It therefore allows for SEEA-based applications for those policy areas (see the Annex of the CEP for further detail). The CEP can also be used, for example, in biodiversity budget tagging.

COFOG: Under COFOG, governments code each purchase, wage payment, transfer, loan disbursement or other outlay under one of ten divisions, according to the primary function or purpose that the transaction serves. Each of these divisions is then broken down into groups, which, in turn, are subdivided into classes. Expenditure for which environmental protection is the primary purpose (irrespective of the sector) are coded under Division 5, Environment Protection. Activities relating to the protection of fauna and flora species (including the reintroduction of extinct species and the recovery of species menaced by extinction), the protection of habitats (including the management of natural parks and reserves) and the protection of landscapes for their aesthetic values (including the rehabilitation of damaged landscapes to improve their aesthetic value) are coded under Group 5.4: Protection of Biodiversity and Landscape. COFOG does not capture sustainable use activities.

5c. Data collection method

Data will be reported directly from countries through the CBD Secretariat through the national reporting cycles.

5d. Accessibility of methodology

UNDP-BIOFIN:

• https://www.biofin.org/sites/default/files/content...
• https://www.biofin.org/biofin-around-world

CEP:

• https://unstats.un.org/UNSDWebsite/statcom/session...
• CEP is a classification system (replacing the CEPA and the CREMA in March 2024) used to classify data according to the SEEA. For 27 EU Members States, data are reported to EUROSTAT.

COFOG (COFOG is both a classification system and a database)

• https://data.imf.org/?sk=5804c5e1-0502-4672-bdcd-6...

5e. Data sources

Primarily derived from government records (national budgets and accounts) on public expenditures, and when available regional/multilateral databases e.g., Eurostat.

5f. Availability and release calendar

Reporting will follow CBD’s national reporting cycle.

5g. Time series

The baseline for countries to report 2020 onwards, and should follow the CBD national reporting timeline.

5h. Data providers

Countries through national reports to the CBD, Statistical offices or Ministries of Finance preferably or Ministers of Environment.

5i. Data compilers

CBD Secretariat through country national reporting.

EUROSTAT, OECD and IMF for COFOG

EUROSTAT and OECD for EPEA

UNDP-BIOFIN (Compiles data but does not have a database)

5j. Gaps in data coverage

Each of the methodologies or systems of classification available have gaps and challenges, mainly:

None of these are applied by all CBD Parties, they differ in relation to what each methodology or framework considers as biodiversity expenditures.

COFOG: Based on primary purposes, covering “biodiversity and landscape protection”. It does not capture sustainable use activities. It is an international statistical classification system. While COFOG has global coverage, not all countries disaggregate data on expenditure on environment protection. Data on biodiversity and landscape protection are available for 59 countries (2020).

EPEA: Not all countries have developed an EPEA according to the SEEA framework. The 27 EU countries are required to develop an EPEA and these statistics are compiled by Eurostat. EPEA from OECD countries are compiled by the OECD. The EPEA have been classified according to the CEPA and from 2025 should be classified according to the new CEP. The CEP is the first statistical classification of activities or products that allows mapping to “policy areas” including for biodiversity, climate change mitigation and circular economy, etc. It therefore allows for SEEA-based applications for those policy areas (see the Annex of the CEP for further detail). CEP is based on primary purposes, covering biodiversity protection and resource management.

BIOFIN: Based on primary and secondary purposes, covering a wide range of activities related to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. It has been used by 41 countries.

5k. Treatment of missing values

6. Scale

6a. Scale of use

Scale of application: National

Scale of data disaggregation/aggregation:

Global/ regional scale indicator can be disaggregated to national level: No

National data is collated to form global indicator: No

6b. National/regional indicator production

6c. Sources of differences between global and national figures

6d. Regional and global estimates & data collection for global monitoring

7. Other MEAs, processes and organisations

7a. Other MEA and processes

No

10. Data Reporter

10a. Organisation

10b. Contact person(s)