OECD: Biodiversity Development Finance Triples to $34.2 Billion, but Gaps Remain

Global development finance supporting biodiversity more than tripled between 2015 and 2024, reaching $34.2 billion in biodiversity-related commitments in 2024, according to new data published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Released on 28 October 2026, the analysis highlights growing financial support for biodiversity conservation and nature-related development activities, while identifying significant gaps in private investment mobilization.

Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members and multilateral financial institutions, particularly development banks, have driven this growth. However, the OECD's figures also reveal an important distinction between financing dedicated specifically to biodiversity and broader development projects that incorporate biodiversity as a secondary objective.

 

Biodiversity Finance Growth Reflects Wider Integration into Development Projects

 

The OECD estimates that biodiversity-related development finance, which includes projects with biodiversity as either a principal or secondary objective, exceeded $34 billion in 2024. Of this total, $8.7 billion supported activities where biodiversity was the primary objective, while $25.5 billion went towards projects with biodiversity as a secondary objective.

Using its more conservative biodiversity-specific measure, which counts primary biodiversity activities in full but assigns a 40% weighting to secondary activities, the OECD estimates that financing reached approximately $18.9 billion in 2024. This measure more than doubled between 2015 and 2024, indicating that biodiversity financing expanded substantially even after adjusting for contributions from broader development projects.

 

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Multilateral Development Banks Drive Financing Expansion

 

DAC members increased biodiversity-related financing from $9.5 billion in 2015 to $15 billion in 2024, with grants remaining their primary financing instrument. Their biodiversity-specific commitments rose from an estimated $6.6 billion to $8.5 billion over the same period.

Multilateral institutions recorded considerably faster growth. Their biodiversity-related development finance increased from approximately $1.4 billion in 2015 to $15.8 billion in 2024, while biodiversity-specific financing rose from $650 million to $8.4 billion. Loans accounted for 75% of multilateral biodiversity outflows in 2024, reflecting development banks' growing role in financing projects that address environmental and development priorities.

 

Private Biodiversity Finance Remains Limited Despite Growth

 

Private finance mobilized for biodiversity-related objectives increased from $205 million in 2017 to $2.9 billion in 2024. On a biodiversity-specific basis, mobilization rose from approximately $250 million to $1.9 billion. These figures demonstrate growing private-sector participation but remain small compared with overall development finance mobilization.

Biodiversity-related activities represented just 3.8% of total private finance mobilized for development in 2024, compared with 40% for climate-related activities. Co-financing accounted for 69% of biodiversity-specific private finance mobilization, while guarantees contributed 18%. The findings suggest that although blended finance and risk-sharing mechanisms are helping attract investment, biodiversity still receives a relatively small share of private development capital.

 

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Climate and Gender Financing Show Uneven Biodiversity Integration

 

The OECD also identified substantial overlap between biodiversity and climate finance. On average, 85% of biodiversity-related development finance from DAC members also targeted climate objectives. However, only 21% of climate-related development finance incorporated biodiversity considerations, indicating that nature-related priorities remain less consistently integrated into broader climate investment portfolios.

Gender equality considerations have become more prominent in biodiversity development finance. The share of biodiversity financing that also addressed gender equality increased from 46% in 2015 to 66% in 2024. Conversely, only 13% of development finance with gender equality objectives incorporated biodiversity-related concerns in 2024.

The findings indicate that biodiversity is gaining recognition within development finance, particularly through multilateral investment and its inclusion in projects with wider environmental and social objectives. However, the significant gap between biodiversity-related and biodiversity-specific financing, along with limited private capital mobilization, underscores the ongoing challenge of translating broader environmental commitments into dedicated nature financing.

 

Source: OECD