Ferdinand Mwapopi, Project Coordinator of the Resources Mobilization for Biodiversity Conservation Project, under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, will address the Business and Biodiversity Forum in Cancun, Mexico, from 2 – 3 December.
ResMob is a joint project of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. This project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.
Under the Business and Biodiversity Forum’s theme of Mainstreaming Biodiversity: Opportunities for Businesses, Mr. Mwapopi has been invited to do a presentation on how Namibia has been able to engage the private sector in biodiversity financing. This will form part of a panel discussion that will address Financing Solutions.
The panel discussion will look into financial mechanisms that consider guidelines on biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, applicable to the private sector, as well to discuss investment opportunities and innovative instruments to scale up involvement of the private sector in biodiversity finance.
The aim of the session is to demonstrate the benefits of biodiversity-related investment and showcase innovative mechanisms for business and biodiversity. The main objectives will be to:
- Present novel viewpoints to address biodiversity conservation from the private sector perspective, including investment opportunities and financing conditions;
- Enable the exchange of experiences, challenges and innovative ideas on the above; and
- Facilitate reflection on how biodiversity is essential to maintain economic prosperity and social well-being.
Available evidence and the decisions adopted by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) indicate that a significant gap remains in finance for biodiversity conservation and management, for countries to drastically scale up their efforts and achieve the 20 Aichi Targets defined in the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 – 2020.
A preliminary assessment recently conducted under the auspices of the High Level Panel on Global Assessment of Resources for Implementing the Strategic Plan estimated that the global investment required amounts to between 130 and 440 billion US$ annually.
This global challenge requires increased efforts from all sources of financing, including the private sector which has been considered a key partner to reduce biodiversity loss. Although several efforts have been made by the private sector, the challenge still remains as to how the productive and financial sectors could better engage into biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.
About Ferdinand Mwapopi
Ferdinand Mwapopi
Mr. Mwapopi’s knowledge and experience in environmental science and biodiversity conservation include technical and supervisory responsibilities at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources of Namibia since 2008. In 2010 he was promoted to a position of Senior Fisheries Biologist where he was overseeing marine mammal research work. He joined Namdeb Diamond Corporation as a Senior Environmental Officer at the Department of Mineral Resource where he was responsible for implementing the Environmental Management System (ISO 14001) in mining operations. In 2014, he joined the project First Biennial Update Report (FBUR) under the Ministry of Environment and Tourism where he was responsible for the greenhouse gas inventory and other chapters of the FBUR for submission to the UNFCCC. Since 2015, Mr. Mwapopi coordinates the Resources Mobilization for Biodiversity Conservation (ResMob) Project.
He is currently the Deputy Chairperson for the management committee of the Namibia Environmental Economic Network (EENN), a non-profit network to better understand ecological, social and economic relations for the mutual-well-being of nature and people in Namibia.