Biodiversity

Protected areas are particularly important in the battle against deforestation and the loss of biodiversity. KfW currently supports more than 600 protected areas worldwide – 36 of which are listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. A large part of protected ecosystems – almost 70% – are forests, especially tropical forests.

Yet even with purely protection projects, the aim is always to manage natural resources in a sustainable manner. Because nature conservation can only work in the long run if people and nature benefit in equal measure. This is why forest management and reforestation are the focal points of many projects.

KfW is also supporting an approach called REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). Here, performance-related payments have proved to be an appropriate tool in protecting tropical forests. The principle of REDD is that climate change and development funding is only provided if partner countries can prove they have reduced greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable forest conservation and management. This is done in Brazil for example, with the support of KfW.

Another important objective of KfW support is the restoration of degraded forest landscapes and cleared forests to contribute both to rural development and to climate protection. “Forest Landscape Restoration“ (FLR) is a concept that tackles these objectives. It combines ecological and human improvements. In Madagascar, KfW is making a contribution of EUR 24 million to FLR targets on behalf of the German Federal Government. Degraded areas are afforested with energy plantations, protected against further erosion and respective land use rights are granted to participating farmers. Energy plantations not only contribute to meeting the increasing demand for charcoal but also to reducing the degradation of endangered natural forests.

Project – PLAE Madagascar (PDF, 183 KB, non-accessible)

More Information on REDD

Species of animals and plants are constantly disappearing from our planet. According to the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) more than 25,000 species are in acute danger worldwide. KfW helps to stem this tide and maintain biodiversity. In Africa, Asia, Latin America and South-Eastern Europe, KfW promotes the protection of nature and species in almost 600 protected areas with roughly EUR 2.55 billion.

KfW also cooperates with IUCN here – protecting tigers in Asia for example – to whom it pledged EUR 27.5 million since the end of 2013 on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with a view to boosting the population of this majestic wildcat again. In Indonesia, KfW works together with the government and the people on developing land use strategies that protect flora and fauna. All told, this involves the protection of thousands of hectares of rainforest, some of which is on the islands of Sumatra.

In collaboration with the nature conservation authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, KfW is helping to protect the last known refuges of the western lowland gorillas in Africa. They live in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in Eastern Congo. On behalf of the BMZ, KfW is funding equipment for the rangers, supporting the preparation and implementation of a management plan and promoting the development of eco-tourism so that the local population can also benefit from nature conservation. Similarly to Eastern Congo, many KfW projects are aimed at linking nature conservation with economic benefits.

In Namibia, KfW supports infrastructure development and the implementation of national parks’ management and tourism plans in the north-east and west of the country (coastal parks). Focus of the support is on the sustainable use of natural resources and on increased incomes in communities bordering national parks or situated in communal wildlife management areas (conservancies).

To conserve biodiversity, the permanent management of protected areas is vitally important. But the long-term operation and the financing of running costs like petrol, spare parts, renovation or public relations is a real challenge especially for poorer partner countries or those with low (tourist) income outside of the protected areas. Therefore, KfW helps partner countries with the development of financial instruments, mostly with so-called conservation trust funds to contribute to sustainable financing of protected area systems. At present KfW promotes 18 conservation trust funds with a FC contribution of EUR 541.13 million overall. Hence KfW contributes to long-term conservation of 260 protected areas. In Cote d’Ivoire, KfW supports on behalf of the German Government the “Fondation des Parcs et Réserves de la Côte d’Ivoire, FPRCI” together with other donors. It includes the structuring of a conservation trust fund and its capitalisation with EUR 24.5 million, also through resources from debt conversion (debt for nature swap). Due to the use of these resources and their investment income, FPRCI can contribute to a permanent financing, for example, of the Ivorian Taï and Comoé national parks.

Furthermore, KfW supports investments in sustainable valorisation of natural resources. The eco.business fund is one project of KfW which builds a bridge between sustainability and attractive private investment. The fund´s mission is to promote business practices in Latin America that contribute to biodiversity conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources as well as to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This is being achieved through the provision of dedicated financing and technical assistance to investments in sustainable agriculture, forestry, fishery and eco-tourism. Due to its great success, the activities of the eco.business Fund are expanded to Africa using BMZ funds.

Factsheet: eco.business Fund (PDF, 233 KB, non-accessible)

Fish represent a crucial part of the diet of almost three billion people. Additionally, more than 500 million people around the world are directly or indirectly dependent on fishing. That said, fish stocks have fallen dramatically in recent decades. However, the heavy overfishing of the world's seas is only one of the problems. Fish populations are also at great risk because of polluted water and disrupted key coastal ecosystems.

Climate change will continue to raise the temperature of the seas and cause sea levels to rise, resulting in receding coral reefs around the globe. This makes thousands of kilometres of coastline more vulnerable to storm tides, it destroys the refuges for many species of fish and can therefore push millions of people even further into poverty. Consequently, KfW is supporting different countries with the protection of their coasts and seas.

For example, this includes the Caribbean countries of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Jamaica, whom KfW is helping to stabilise key ecosystems such as coral reefs, mangrove forests and seagrass beds to mitigate the strength of tropical storms and therefore offer better protection for coastlines. This safeguards the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people living on the coast. In Mauritania, a fishery monitoring and surveillance project has for years used the most advanced radar surveillance techniques to help protect the fish stocks of this coastal nation against overfishing by foreign fishing fleets. By protecting the Banque d’Arguin National Park, this project also preserves the most important spawning grounds in Western Africa, and therefore the livelihoods of thousands of people.