Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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Global Environment Facility (GEF) 7th Replenishment
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsTo support developing countries to implement international agreements on climate change, biodiversity, land degradation and harmful chemicals as integral elements of sustainable development. GEF’s other activities include sustainable forest management, international waters and protecting the ozone layer.
The Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL) - Bio Carbon Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsA multilateral project administered by the World Bank which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the land use sector through sustainable landscape management, whilst improving the livelihoods of forest communities. The ISFL combines upfront technical assistance with results-based finance which rewards countries which implement landscape-level approaches that reduce emissions from the forest and land-use sector. Defra is supporting programmes in Indonesia and Zambia
Low Carbon Agriculture for avoided deforestation and poverty reduction - Phase 2
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThe programme operates in the Cerrado and Caatinga biomes in Brazil, over the course of four years (2017 - 2021). As a follow-up phase to a similar ICF intervention in Brazil, the programme aims to restore deforested and degraded land on small- and medium-sized farms and will target the barriers experienced by farmers in accessing rural credit.
The eco.business Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsDefra has made an investment in the eco.business Fund; a public-private partnership investment fund. It aims to promotes lending practices with business and consumption that contributes to biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, climate change mitigation and adaption to its impacts. The Fund will secure private sector investments and support both financial instruments and non-financial instruments, such as technical assistance across South America: Ecuador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Columbia, Panama & Honduras. The fund is designed to leverage existing financial sector infrastructure and promote the investment integration of conservation investment finance into mainstream financial products.
UK Annual Contributions to the Montreal Protocol Trust Fund, Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund and Vienna Convention Trust Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThis activity supports an annual UK contribution to The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer which is a multilateral environmental agreement with universal ratification. It regulates the production and consumption of ozone depleting substances (ODS). Protection of the ozone layer is vital in preventing increased UV radiation, resulting in higher incidence of skin cancers and eye cataracts, more-compromised immune systems, and negative effects on watersheds, agricultural lands and forests. The Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol was established in 1991. The Fund's objective is to provide financial and technical assistance to developing country parties to the Montreal Protocol whose annual per capita consumption and production of ODS is less than 0.3 kg to comply with the control measures of the Protocol. The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer is a multilateral environmental agreement signed in 1985 that provided frameworks for international reductions in the production of chlorofluorocarbons due to their contribution to the destruction of the ozone layer, resulting in an increased threat of skin cancer.
Avoiding Deforestation, Managing Critical Ecosystems and Increasing Resilience to Climate Change in Sri Lanka
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThis World Bank-managed project aims to improve the management of protected areas and biologically-critical ecosystems, in order to avoid deforestation and increase resilience to climate change. The project will focus heavily on biodiversity conservation and in particular tackling the causes of human-elephant conflict.
Ecosystem Conservation and Management Project Additional Financing
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThis World Bank-managed project aims to improve the management of ecosystems in selected locations in Sri Lanka for conservation and community benefits by enhancing the management of protected areas and biologically-critical ecosystems, in order to avoid deforestation and increase resilience to climate change.
UK Blue Carbon Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThe Fund will promote the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of mangrove habitats by developing and embedding operational blue carbon markets across the Caribbean and Latin America that provide local communities with a sustainable income and assist in moving low-income countries towards low-emission, climate-resilient development.
Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Change Programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsFunding from UK government to deliver excellent climate research to provide an improved understanding of past climate and enable better projections to underpin national scientific capability and inform domestic and international policy commitments (e.g. Climate Change Act 2008 and UNFCCC negotiations). Climate models and underpinning science developed using MOHCCP funding are publically available and used as the foundation for many projects that aim to build resilience to a changing climate in developing countries. The models are used for developing systems in developing countries to produce climate projections. For example, the models have been used to analyse drought in the Horn of Africa, climate change impacts in Bangladesh and to build resilience to climate change in the Philippines.
Darwin Initiative Round 24
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThe Darwin Initiative is a UK government grants scheme that helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide. The initiative funds projects that help countries rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to meet their objectives under one or more of the biodiversity conventions. The objective is to to address threats to biodiversity such as: - habitat loss or degradation - climate change - invasive species - over-exploitation - pollution and eutrophication
Blue Forests Initiative
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThe project aims to design a holistic model for mangrove forest conservation and sustainable development. Operating in Madagascar and Indonesia, the project seeks to reduce the deforestation of mangrove habitat, create new sustainable livelihoods, support community health and women’s empowerment and increase climate resilience in coastal communities.
Land Degradation Neutrality Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThe LDN Fund invests in projects which reduce or reverse land degradation and thereby contribute to ‘Land Degradation Neutrality’. The LDN Fund is co-promoted by the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Mirova. It is a public-private partnership using public money to increase private sector investment in sustainable development. The fund invests in sustainable agriculture, forestry and other land uses globally. The Fund was launched at the UNCCD’s COP 13 in China in 2017.
Annual contribution to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThis activity supports the UK's annual contribution to UNEP which is an Annex 2 Organisation. UNEP sets global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
Funding to support delivery of ODA eligible programming delivered by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThe Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew provides an international centre of expertise and benefits to developing countries, including through collections and seed banks, agricultural science including collaboration with the ODA eligible Global Crop Diversity Trust, plant health including diagnosis of plant pests and diseases and biosecurity, capacity building (CBD, CITES, Nagoya Protocol, IPBES), M&E of ICF, advice on climate change resilience.
Darwin Initiative Round 25
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThe Darwin Initiative is a UK government grants scheme that helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide. The initiative funds projects that help countries rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to meet their objectives under one or more of the biodiversity conventions. The objective is to to address threats to biodiversity such as: - habitat loss or degradation - climate change - invasive species - over-exploitation - pollution and eutrophication
Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund Round 5
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsIllegal wildlife trade (IWT) is the fifth most lucrative transnational crime, worth up to £17bn a year globally. As well as threatening species with extinction, IWT destroys vital ecosystems. IWT also fosters corruption, feeds insecurity, and undermines good governance and the rule of law. The UK government is committed to tackling illegal trade of wildlife products. Defra manages the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, which is a competitive grants scheme with the objective of tackling illegal wildlife trade and, in doing so, contributing to sustainable development in developing countries. Projects funded under the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund address one, or more, of the following themes: • Developing sustainable livelihoods to benefit people directly affected by IWT • Strengthening law enforcement • Ensuring effective legal frameworks • Reducing demand for IWT products Over £23 million has been committed to 75 projects since the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund was established in 2013; five projects were awarded in 2014 (via applications to the Darwin Initiative), fourteen in 2015, fifteen in 2016, thirteen in 2017, fourteen in 2018 and in the latest round in 2019. This round of funding includes the following projects (details of which can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/811381/iwt-project-list-2019.pdf)): IWT062, IWT063, IWT064, IWT065, IWT066, IWT067, IWT068, IWT069, IWT070, IWT071, IWT072, IWT073, IWT074, IWT075.
An annual core contribution to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to support the delivery of the Convention's objectives.
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThis activity supports the UK's annual core contribution to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The CBD is the main international forum devoted to the conservation and sustainable use of the world’s biological diversity, from genetic resources, to whole ecosystems. It has almost universal membership, with 196 Parties – only the USA and the Holy See are not Party to the CBD. The Convention on Biological Diversity explicitly aims to contribute human well-being and poverty eradication in developing countries through taking actions to halt biodiversity loss and ensuring essential ecosystem services. It has three main objectives: the conservation of biological diversity; the sustainable use of its components; and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
Funding to build capacity and support cross-border action on the conservation of wildlife within countries in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA)
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThe funding will be used to support KAZA countries to develop African-led trans-frontier approaches to support conservation of wildlife, including iconic species such as elephants through efforts in integrated land-use planning, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, community livelihoods and illegal wildlife trade. This funding will be used to provide technical assistance and build capacity within the KAZA countries to address areas for immediate action, provide a foundation for future work programmes and support access to wider funding options.
Annual contribution to the International Union for Conservation of Nature
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThis activity supports an annual contribution to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.
An annual contribution to the Convention on International Trade in Endagered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to secure UK membership and participation within the organisation.
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural AffairsThis annual contribution secures UK membership of, and ability to participate in the decision-making processes of, the Convention on International Trade in Endagered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The Convention is an international agreement to which States and regional economic integration organizations adhere voluntarily. The work of CITES aims to promote global prosperity by facilitating the legal international trade in species and their derivatives while protecting them from over-exploitation. The UK's annual contributions go towards the work of the CITES Secretariat, including its efforts to produce and share information on the status of endangered species, their sustainable use by communities from a range of locations and economic backgrounds, and the most effective means of engaging rural and local communities in the CITES decision-making process. CITES follows a regular cycle of international conferences which allow its rules to be reviewed, including the listing of new species for protection. Parties need to implement the rules of the conventions and provide the protections required to listed species otherwise they will be subject to compliance mechanisms, which in the case of CITES can extend to trade suspensions.