SDG 15 – Life on Land

Why everyone needs an intact nature

Nature forms our basis of life. Almost everything we humans need for our existence comes from nature. Healthy and diverse ecosystems supply us with air, water, food, clothing and raw materials of all kinds. Many of our medicines also originate in nature. For example, three-quarters of all antibiotics and two-thirds of all cancer drugs come from there. Recreation and health are also closely linked to nature.

The economy is also heavily dependent on them. According to the World Economic Forum, more than half of global GDP depends in some way on nature. This can be water for cooling for industrial processes, wood for furniture production, or it can be cocoa beans for the production of chocolate. Particularly affected are German and European companies (beyond the financial sector), which, according to the European Central Bank, are two-thirds dependent on functioning ecosystems. And banks themselves are also heavily dependent on nature: according to ECB findings, three quarters of all loans in the euro area go to companies that are heavily dependent on at least one ecosystem service.

Nature as a buffer against global warming

In addition, the further course of global warming is closely linked to intact nature and whether natural areas such as forests, peatlands and soils can be preserved or even regenerated. This is because they store the climate-damaging CO₂ naturally, which is why they are also referred to as CO₂ sinks or as "nature-based solutions". Biodiversity is therefore a crucial factor in the fight against climate change.

The more diverse ecosystems are, the more reliably they can provide all these services. Biodiversity is something like the engine room of nature. It ensures, for example, that plants are pollinated, seeds are spread, forests are regenerated or soils are kept fertile. In a complex interplay, the species form a web of life that must not become brittle.

Dramatic decline

But that is exactly what is happening. The decline in natural habitats and biodiversity has now reached dramatic proportions and has never been so great in human history: it ranges from the loss of birds and mammals to the loss of various ferns and fir trees to the spread of deserts.

According to the IPBES, one in eight million estimated species is threatened with extinction in the next few decades. According to scientific calculations, the extinction rate is now 10 to 100 times higher than in the last 10 million years. We are in the sixth mass extinction of Earth’s history, but with a slight difference from the past: this time, man is the driving force.

New targets for 2030

In order to counteract this, the international community set itself new targets for 2030 with the "Global Biodiversity Framework" (GBF) in 2022. This includes, for example, placing 30% of the earth's surface under protection and restoring just as much degenerated land. At the 2024 Conference of the Parties, these objectives were clarified and supplemented by new financing mechanisms and an international upgrade of indigenous peoples and local communities (IP&LC). The latter are now firmly represented at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. This provides a sound political framework, and now it is implementation that matters.

KfW is committed to reversing the trend in nature loss, in line with the 2030 Agenda and the GBF. Preserving ecosystems, halting the loss of biodiversity, using land and forests sustainably and combating desertification, as provided for in SDG 15, is a question of humanity’s future.

Protected areas are an effective means of halting biodiversity loss, especially if they are effectively managed and in harmony with local or indigenous populations. In this sense, protected areas must be established, secured and well managed so that nature can recover there. And this is especially true in "biodiversity hotspots", which are mainly located in the Global South. Tropical rainforests, which cover only about 7% of the Earth's surface, are home to 50 to 75% of the world's plant and animal species. However, only just under 18% of the planned 30% are currently protected worldwide. There is still roughly the same area as Russia.

However, many poorer countries lack the necessary financial resources for effective nature conservation. That is why they need additional and predictable resources. This is what KfW is working on, one of the most important support measures in the green sector being protected areas. For example, infrastructure such as marshalling posts, monitoring systems, equipment or measures for the benefit of residents are financed here. Working with them to support their economic and social development in a sustainable way is key. This is done, for example, by promoting sustainable tourism, ranger work or by opening up alternative sources of income that are compatible with the concept of protection, for example in West Africa.

KfW contributes to the development and conservation of more than 800 protected areas worldwide. In order to raise funds for this purpose on a permanent basis, in particular for operational costs, KfW supports Conservation Trust Funds (CTF) such as the Caucasus Nature Fund and the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund, among others. One of KfW’s stated objectives is to involve private donors more than before. This will enable new sources of funding for nature conservation to be found through the scarce resources of development cooperation. One example is the Legacy Landscapes Fund. Over the next few years, it is to promote 30 of the world’s most biodiverse landscapes, and to this end it will be funded by public and private funds. KfW currently supports 16 such CTFs worldwide.

Forests play a crucial role in the future of mankind because of their wealth of biodiversity, their positive effects on climate protection and their livelihood-securing effects for a total of around one billion people. Accordingly, forest conservation is also of great importance at KfW: around three quarters of the portfolio in the biodiversity sector is forest-related.

This major commitment is based on various pillars: promoting sustainable forest management, restoring forest landscapes (Forest and Landscape Restoration, FLR), reducing CO₂ emissions through avoided deforestation (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, REDD+) and promoting so-called deforestation-free supply chains (ELC).

About half of the portfolio is dedicated to sustainable forest management, which reconciles use and protection. For example, there are projects in Indonesia, Madagascar and, via the Amazon Fund, in Brazil. Support had been interrupted during the reign of President Jair Bolsonaro.

Does forest protection work? Results of the evaluation

KfW sees itself as a source of impetus here; it supports the shift in agriculture and the use of resources towards sustainable practices with targeted programmes. For example, it promotes agro-ecological farming and production methods in India. This is because various cultivation systems, such as agroforestry or mixed crops, have a significantly higher variety of plants and animals than monocultures. Soil and erosion protection also helps to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem functions.

The eco.business Fund is a particularly effective example of the transformation to a "green economy". Through it, KfW supports deforestation-free, resource-conserving and biodiversity-friendly forms of production in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. In the meantime, for example, the fund has helped to sustainably manage almost 1.4 million hectares of arable land and save around 31 million m3 of water in agriculture.

Purely nature conservation projects are not enough to reverse the trend towards a life in harmony with nature, as envisaged by the GBF and as necessary for the well-being of the planet. The KfW Development Bank is therefore working to "mainstream" nature conservation as a core element in other sectors by promoting direct biodiversity projects. The aim is to integrate biodiversity-positive measures into projects in other sectors, such as the financial sector, the energy or water sector, or in the areas of mobility and education. These can be "green", nature-based measures such as forests to prevent flooding and the introduction of pollutants into water inlets. They can also be native plantations in solar parks or mangrove forests for coastal protection. In the financial sector, biodiversity-friendly business practices are possible through "thematic loan programmes".

In addition to the work of KfW Development Bank, the entire banking group is also committed to increasing biodiversity, not least because the issue is becoming increasingly important for the private sector, and especially for the financial sector. To this end, KfW has initiated the project "bioSFer" – "commited to nature". The core element is the development of a biodiversity strategy for the KfW Bankengruppe. BioSFer follows a comprehensive approach. Among other things, positive effects are strengthened by the expansion of corresponding financing activities, negative effects are avoided and biodiversity-related risks are managed along the regulatory requirements.

In this way, KfW is making an active contribution to creating a life in harmony with nature by 2050, in addition to its funding activities in the strict sense. This vision is enshrined in the "Global Biodiversity Framework".

Germany is strongly committed to SDG 15 and is one of the world’s largest donors through KfW. KfW takes a human rights-based approach and also ensures that IP&LC are included, because they are important "guardians" of nature. This is done, for example, by actively participating in decisions on the ground or setting up complaint mechanisms.

In 2024, KfW Development Bank provided new financing of more than EUR 1.1 billion, which is expected to contribute to achieving SDG 15. The financing contracts signed in 2024 are expected to contribute to the protection of more than 95 million hectares of terrestrial and marine protected areas in the coming years. This corresponds well to two and a half times the area of Germany.

To this end, KfW works not only with partner countries, but also with nature conservation organisations and, increasingly, the private sector. The common goal is to protect natural habitats and use them sustainably.

"From Speech to Action"

An interview with Stefanie Lang, Director of the Legacy Landscapes Fund, about five years of LLF, international biodiversity conservation and why efforts must not stop now.

A large herd of wild animals run across a barren meadow

Madidi National Park in Bolivia

Bolivia is one of the 15 countries with the greatest biodiversity. But this biodiversity is under threat – not least due to the rapidly increasing rate of deforestation. Learn in this film how the LLF enables nature conservation here.

Play Video