Viet Nam receives funding from Kunming Biodiversity Fund

The Governing Board of the Kunming Biodiversity Fund has approved nine new conservation projects in developing countries, with total funding of approximately US$4.5 million. Mr. Dong Baotong, Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment, announced this at a press briefing on the sidelines of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia.

The projects are part of the first phase of the Fund's third funding round and will be implemented in Armenia, Bangladesh, Benin, Cameroon, Cuba, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Somalia and Viet Nam.

China announced the establishment of the Kunming Biodiversity Fund in October 2021, during the COP15 Leaders' Summit, pledging a contribution of 1.5 billion yuan (US$225 million). China has so far contributed 400 million yuan (approximately US$60 million) to the Fund, while calling on governments, businesses and social organisations worldwide to help mobilise additional resources.

According to Mr. Dong Baotong, the Fund prioritises conservation models with the potential for replication and scaling up, as well as approaches that combine multiple sources of financing to help close the biodiversity funding gap.

To date, the Fund has approved 31 projects across 45 developing countries. In the next phase of its third funding round, it plans to support around 40 additional projects, focusing on ecosystem restoration, emergency protection for rare and endangered species, and other conservation activities.

Ms. Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, described the Fund as a flexible instrument aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and capable of helping advance its 2030 targets.

Meanwhile, Ms. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), said the nine new projects form part of a plan to disburse approximately US$21 million by the end of 2026, providing much-needed financial support to countries.

Adopted at COP15 in 2022, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework sets out 23 targets to be achieved by 2030. One of its key goals is to ensure that at least 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland water, marine and coastal ecosystems are under effective restoration. Viet Nam's inclusion in the list of beneficiary countries creates further opportunities to access international funding and strengthen the country's efforts to conserve and restore biodiversity.