Globally, for every dollar spent protecting nature, roughly thirty are spent on activities that degrade it. Reversing that ratio starts with knowing what countries spend, where the money comes from, and which incentives work against their own biodiversity goals. Many countries now have that baseline. The next step is to embed it in how governments plan, budget and track spending.

That is the purpose of the Yerevan Biodiversity Finance Challenge. The two-year Challenge is being launched by a collaboration between UNDP and the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership, with support from Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and its’ International Climate Initiative (IKI). Together with the Yerevan Call on Incentives Positive for Biodiversity and the Friends of Target 18, this Challenge is one of the three pillars of the Armenian COP17 Presidency’s Finance Flagship Initiative. The initiative provides political momentum and enabling environment for accelerating and expanding positive incentives while advancing subsidy reform to accelerate implementation of Target 18. Through the IKI-supported “UNDP Funding Windows – Nature Pledge Flagship”, the Challenge will be the practical enabler of the initiative,  providing  technical support for countries that are ready to implement an innovative approach. It builds on the work of the UNDP Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), and its focus on national finance follows a theme that ran through the Kunming Dialogues.

Since 2013, UNDP has supported countries through UNDP BIOFIN to measure their biodiversity expenditures and develop national biodiversity finance plans, while more recently to review biodiversity-related subsidies and other incentives. More than 100 countries are now carrying out expenditure reviews and initial subsidy analyses, with 39 more expected to follow. 

The Yerevan Biodiversity Finance Challenge supports the logical next step. Countries with a baseline in place can use it to change how budgets are designed and monitored, and which incentives they keep.

The gap between agreed targets and national action is often a gap in how governments budget. The Challenge tests whether targeted support can help close it, and it brings a group of countries together to compare what works. Results will be reported ahead of COP18 in 2028, so lessons can reach countries still building their own approaches.

The Yerevan Biodiversity Finance Challenge will back countries ready to pioneer innovative approaches in two focus areas to support Target 18 and Target 19:

• Budgeting and monitoring: Advance the integration of Target 19 into national budgeting and biodiversity expenditure monitoring frameworks. 
• Subsidies and incentives: Integrate biodiversity considerations into priority subsidies that are harmful to Nature and to create positive incentives, building on countries’ existing efforts through UNDP BIOFIN, among others.

Up to 10 countries can be supported, each with technical support of up to US$200,000 and no minimum project size. The Challenge will also support coalitions of like-minded countries to exchange lessons and advocate for budget tagging and subsidy screening and greening in international forums.

Applicants must be country members of the Accelerator Partnership, or ready to become members, and demonstrate political will, for example through support from different areas of government or new legislation aligned with the project. Proposals must:

• Be submitted by the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership’s country focal point through its MatchMaking Mechanism.
• Be implementable within 19 months (February 2027 to August 2028), with concrete results reported before COP18 in 2028.
• Address one or both focus areas directly.
• Build on existing biodiversity finance work in the country, including work through UNDP BIOFIN.
• Require technical support of no more than US$200,000.

Countries are encouraged to begin preparing now using the Call for Proposals document and Request Form. The Challenge will be officially announced at COP17 in Yerevan on 20 October, with first drafts due to the MatchMaking Mechanism team by 5 November and final requests by 27 November. Applicants will be notified of the outcome ahead of a virtual inception meeting in January 2027 and implementation starting no later than 31 January. 

Join us: Read the Call for Proposals and Request Form, talk to your focal point about a request, or contact the MatchMaking Mechanism team at matchmaking@nbsapaccelerator.org. If your country is not yet a member but ready to become a member, learn how to join the Accelerator on our membership page.