The Resource Mobilization for Biodiversity Conservation (ResMob) Project conducted an expert focus group meeting in Windhoek on 14 March to utilize the expertise of stakeholders to select and prioritize 10 to 15 finance options for inclusion into the National Biodiversity Resource Mobilization Strategy.
This is a further effort and consultation to involve stakeholders in an interactive and participatory process to develop a National Biodiversity Resource Mobilization strategy.
The meeting was well attended and consisted of experts and stakeholders from Namibia Nature Foundation, National Planning Commission, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Environmental Investment Fund and the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre.
The stakeholders used the UN-system to prioritize and select different finance solution options from a list of 27 preselected instruments. Some of the criteria prescribed that the finance solutions should be possible and practical, as well as fair to ensure amenable distributional impacts (guarding of low income household effects). Other criteria considered were that the finance solutions should not harm the private and public sectors’ competitiveness, and that it should help drive innovation.
Some of the 27 preselected biodiversity finance solutions, which were presented to the stakeholders for prioritization were:
- Biodiversity offsets,
- Payment for Ecosystem services,
- Green financing,
- Tourist entry fees
- Environmental levies,
- Crowd funding,
- Lotteries.
Following this workshop, a wider stakeholder dialogue will be conducted to present the draft Resource Mobilisation Strategy, including the selected finance options and a roadmap on how to implement the financing instruments.
These efforts aim at the preparation of a Resource Mobilisation Strategy to be submitted to Cabinet for endorsement.