Banks and Biodiversity

While biodiversity offsets may seem like a seductively simple solution to a complex problem, “Fool’s Paradise: How Biodiversity Offsets don’t Stop Biodiversity Loss”, a new briefing from Friends of the Earth US, reveals how an offset approach may actually intensify and cause more biodiversity loss by creating the illusion of biodiversity protection.

Friends of the Earth US has published a new report examining how the international banking sector lacks strong, comprehensive policies to protect World Heritage and other internationally recognized sites. Drawing on six case studies, the report calls on financial institutions to adopt the Banks and Biodiversity No Go policy as a first step towards safeguarding the most special and unique ecosystems on Earth.

On November 11th, 2020, the Banks and Biodiversity campaign led 38 civil society groups (CSOs) in calling on nearly 200 public development banks and financial institutions to commit to adopting the Banks and Biodiversity proposed No Go policy. The letter was sent to public development banks and financial institutions participating in the Finance in Common Summit, which took place on November 9-12, 2020, and called on financial actors to take urgent steps to safeguard the world’s last and most critical ecosystems necessary for fighting climate change, preventing biodiversity loss, and containing the emergence of zoonotic diseases.