Third World Network and allies
In 2024, Parties to the CBD requested that the Secretariat commission a study on the relationship between debt sustainability and implementation of the Convention. The study’s findings have important implications for resource mobilization discussions at SBI-6, though conclusions and policy recommendations should await a full and transparent review. The final, peer-reviewed study should inform conti-nued SBI-7 deliberations and recommendations to COP.
The draft report makes one point unmistakably clear: biodiversity finance is predominantly a public finance issue, and, as a result, resource mobilization is directly exposed to fiscal conditions and debt service obligations. This may be an obvious point to those who face these constraints, but it has so far been under-explored as a key barrier to the implementation of the Convention.
The study also highlights the limited role of inno-vative financial mechanisms in addressing these constraints. While debt-for-nature swaps and green or blue bonds are frequently promoted as win–win solutions, the report finds that their impact on reducing debt stocks and debt service burdens has been modest. Evidence from other reports also shows that the impact of such mechanisms in effecting biodiversity outcomes is oftentimes limited. Overestimating the utility of such mechanisms risks obscuring the scale of the structural problem.
However, the report sidesteps a crucial dimension: how these burdensome conditions of debt are drivers of biodiversity destruction, not just
constraints on biodiversity spending. Debt service pressures — shaped by structural imbalances in the international financial system — can push countries to expand extractive, export-oriented sectors to earn foreign exchange and stabilize their economies. High interest rates, balance-of-payments pressures, threats of credit rating downgrades, and risks of capital flight create strong incentives to open new extractive frontiers, often in biodiverse areas.
These dynamics are not limited to countries in formal debt distress. Even nations considered fiscally stable may face structural constraints that limit their ability to reform extractive sectors or pursue transformative economic pathways. The result is a persistent trade-off between social and ecological stability on one hand, and creditor repayment on the other. Reforming these perverse incentives will be necessary in order to support government efforts to chart a more sustainable and just path.
If the CBD is to deliver transformative change, as called for by IPBES, debt must be recognized not only as a fiscal constraint but as a systemic driver of biodiversity destruction. There is thus an urgent need for continued engagement with the structural economic conditions that shape harmful financial flows and biodiversity outcomes, including coordination across UN conventions and processes such as the emerging UN Tax Convention.
Further, alternative debt-management pathways must be explored — pathways that expand fiscal space without relying on biodiversity-harming extraction.
Protecting biodiversity requires more than new funding streams. It requires confronting the financial structures that systematically undermine ecological stability. Diagnosing these structures and reforming them would allow for greater biodiversity action.