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European Environment Initiative (EURENI)

Two young people in front of a mountain panorama hold an EU flag

Strengthening biodiversity funding

Unlocking the potential for increasing the uptake for biodiversity funding      

Duration

completed

2022-01-01 till 2023-03-31

Location

Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia

Funding Amount

112,300.00 €

Project background

Conserving biodiversity in the EU requires significant financial resources. Funding for biodiversity restoration and conservation often falls short of what is needed to achieve the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy. To achieve the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, at least 20 billion euros per year are needed across EU Member States.

The EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) would have been an important opportunity to invest in the restoration and conservation of biodiversity. However, less than 1% of RFF expenditure was allocated to biodiversity measures.

Project goals and measures

The overarching aim of the project is to increase and make optimal use of funding for biodiversity conservation in selected EU countries. Initially, the project will identify the underlying reasons for insufficient funding as well as possible solutions for a more effective use of funds for biodiversity conservation.

To this end, a series of dialogues is planned – first between non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in all four implementing countries. The NGOs involved in the dialogues have developed biodiversity projects that can contribute to achieving the biodiversity objectives in the past. However, in many cases, measures could not be implemented due to a lack of funding commitments. The first step is to analyse the previous obstacles to funding.

The findings will then be presented to decision-makers. In doing so, both the risks of inaction as well as the societal benefits resulting from the realisation of biodiversity objectives will be addressed. The aim is to bring together all stakeholders involved in the life cycle of an EU-funded project and to discuss decision making processes. This approach has proved very fruitful in the context of interregional projects.

Lastly, the results will also be presented to the European Commission in order to create a better understanding of regional decision-making within the EU, and improve the impact of EU funding for biodiversity conservation.