The Philippines plans to expand its use of blended finance, drawing on public funding, international aid and private investment to help close a US$993.1 million (P63.3 billion) annual shortfall in biodiversity protection, environment officials said at the close of the United Nations biodiversity summit, COP17.
Speaking on the sidelines of a panel in Manila that discussed the next steps of the Philippines after COP17, Rowena Bolinas, Chief of the Biodiversity Management Bureau’s (BMB) Policy, Program Planning and Monitoring Section, said that the push comes as the country secured new technical support through the Yerevan Biodiversity Finance Challenge and approval for a Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) project intended to mobilise private capital for conservation.
Under the Yerevan Biodiversity Finance Challenge, the Philippines is one of 10 countries selected to receive up to US$200,000 each in technical funding and support to address subsidies harmful to nature and integrate biodiversity priorities into national budgets, Bolinas told Eco-Business.
Developed by the United Nations Development Programme’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) and the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP) Accelerator Partnership, the initiative will help the Philippines implement its national biodiversity strategy. The partnership is a country-led initiative that helps governments accelerate action on their biodiversity commitments.
The annual cost of implementing the country’s 23 biodiversity targets at about US$1.45 billion (P92 billion), but the government allocation is only about US$339 million (P21.6 billion), Bolinas said in a panel organised by German-backed nonprofit Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on 4 November.
The Philippines has an annual gap of US$993.1 million (P63.3 billion) for biodiversity financing, as of September 2026, acoording to latest government data. Image: DENR
The targets form part of the Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2024 to 2040, the country’s roadmap for protecting and restoring nature. Aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, they cover ecosystem conservation, reducing species extinction risks, sustainable agriculture and fisheries, and strengthening business participation and financing for biodiversity.
Among the country’s commitments is to effectively conserve and manage 24 per cent of its terrestrial and inland water areas and 16 per cent of coastal and marine areas by 2040. The plan also seeks to restore degraded ecosystems, maintain species populations and genetic diversity, and expand the use of nature based solutions to address climate and environmental risks.
These biodiversity commitments also intersect with the Philippines’ updated climate pledge, submitted to the UN in September. Its net carbon sink target could raise the profile of forest protection, land restoration and other nature-based climate measures.
Official development assistance, multilateral development banks, bilateral partners and private companies are among the potential funding sources, Bolinas said, alongside contributions from civil society and other stakeholders.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is finalising a framework for private sector engagement to guide financing partnerships, projects and activities, she added.
DENR is working with Philippine-based nonprofit Business for Sustainable Development and global coalition Business for Nature, with hopes of developing a local plan to strengthen business participation in biodiversity protection, drawing on Malaysia’s experience. Malaysia’s Blueprint for Accelerating Biodiversity Action sets out 11 goals for businesses to achieve by 2030, with actions, responsibilities and timelines aligned with national and global biodiversity priorities.
“Business has to realise the risk of impacting biodiversity,” Bolinas told Eco-Business, stressing the need for companies to recognise the financial significance of their impacts on nature.
The panel titled CBD 17 – What are the next steps for the Philippines? was held in Makati Diamond Hotel on 4 November. From left, Rowena Bolinas, Chief of the Biodiversity Management Bureau’s (BMB) Policy, Program Planning and Monitoring Section of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR); Anson M. Tagtag, Division Chief, BMB, DENR; Corazon de Jesus, Acting Director of Programmes Department and Division Director for Sustainable Use and Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) Division, Asean Centre for Biodiversity; Dr Jan Henning Steffen, Programme Director of SOMACORE at GIZ, John Leo Algo, Board of Trustees Member of Haribon Foundation; Moderated by Anna Oposa, Founder and Executive Director, Save Philippine Seas. Image: GIZ Separately, the approved GBFF project carries US$4.5 million in Global Environment Facility (GEF) funding and US$95.9 million in co-financing. It will support piloting the country’s first biodiversity bonds, offering another route to attract private investment into nature conservation.
BMB Division Chief Anson M Tagtag said in the panel that part of the discussions during COP17 also included directing 20 per cent of funding from the GEF to Indigenous Peoples and local communities, while noting that arrangements for accessing international finance remained unresolved.
Whether funds would pass through national governments or reach communities directly would require further discussion, he said, underscoring that mobilising money is only part of the challenge.
Wider donor base raises accountability concerns
COP17 ended with countries agreeing to invite wealthy emerging economies like China to assume donor status and help fund biodiversity protection as finance falls short.
The move could widen biodiversity funding sources, but risks weakening pressure on developed countries to honour their obligations, a Philippine conservation advocate warned.
John Leo Algo, a Board of Trustees Member of nonprofit environmental organisation Haribon Foundation, said the move reflected a recurring pattern across biodiversity and climate negotiations.
“Developed countries are pushing for broadening the contributor base to avoid fulfilling their obligations to provide finance to developing countries,” he told Eco-Business.
The debate comes as wealthy governments have fallen short of their commitment to provide US$20 billion annually in international biodiversity finance by 2025, according to reporting citing Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) figures.
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Developed countries are pushing for broadening the contributor base to avoid fulfilling their obligations to provide finance to developing countries.
John Leo Algo, Board of Trustees Member, Haribon Foundation
For the Philippines and other developing countries, Algo’s concern is whether additional contributors would supplement existing support or become a justification for traditional donors to contribute less.
He argued that shifting responsibility contradicted the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, or CBDR, which he linked to developed countries’ historical responsibility for environmental damage.
Developing countries must resist that shift inside negotiating rooms and elsewhere, he said.
“They must insist on upholding the CBDR principle, that polluters must pay, and that the Global South should not be pressured to do what the Global North is obliged to do first.”
