Specific financing for biodiversity is insufficient and not very diversified. It is essential to expand financing sources and increase the participation and investment of the private sector. To this end, the BIOFIN initiative, whose objective is to implement financing solutions for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, has designed the Bio-economy strategy. This term encompasses those projects and processes that use the components of biodiversity as the main input, boosting economic activity, improving competitiveness and generating a positive impact on the accumulation of natural capital. At the end of July, BIOFIN convened more than 25 organizations, most of them from the civil society, that actively work with projects focused on conservation of nature in Mexico, at the Living Arts Center in Mexico City, with the objective of creating the Bio-economy Collective, in a participative manner.

BIOFIN’s bio-economy strategy is composed of three elements to be developed and implemented by BIOFIN with the support of the Collective as a transversal axis:

• Acceleration fund for productive projects with an impact on biodiversity
• Online bio-economy platform
• Strengthening of Wildlife Conservation Management Units (UMA)

This group will move from an individual vision to one of collective impact and common effort, with shared objectives that strengthen and replicate Bio-economy initiatives in Mexico as a tool to increase financing for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The session was facilitated by Cirklo, Innovation with purpose.

Some of the results of the session include the launch and socialization of the BIOFIN Mexico bio-economy strategy of and the creation of the Bio-economy Collective that will work in a coordinated manner to enhance the impact of their interventions, which will also avoid duplicating efforts, by increasing the amounts and sources of resources to boost sustainable businesses and investments with an impact on biodiversity.