Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana is dedicated to preserving natural resources and protecting life on earth.
During a stakeholder training on integrating biodiversity into the finance sector in Kasane, the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Ms Masego Mooketsi, said biodiversity had been a central focus of Botswana’s development efforts since 1966. She emphasised that Botswana’s development relied heavily on its diverse biodiversity, and as such, the country became a member of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1995.
The CBD aims to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity, ensure fair sharing of benefits from biological resources, and protect life on earth as an essential component of economic and social development.
Ms Mooketsi stated that during the CBD COP-11, the UNDP launched the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) as a global partnership aimed at addressing the biodiversity finance gap through effective resource mobilisation.
The deputy permanent secretary pointed out that the objective of the initiative was to integrate biodiversity considerations into national development and sectoral planning while addressing the finance gap for biodiversity conservation. She stated that it was imperative to mainstream biodiversity as an integral element of sustainable agriculture by promoting sustainable farming practices that reduce environmental impacts.
For her part, BIOFIN project lead and senior public finance expert, Ms Kebaabetswe Keoagile said the training workshop targeted finance regulators and biodiversity sectors organisations being Bank of Botswana, Non-Bank Financial Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA), Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Environment and Tourism and BIOFIN Global. She said the workshop intended to come up with a green mainstreaming working group, which constituted of finance regulators and subsequently be cascaded to their clients in the banking sector. Ms Keoagile said there was need for collaborations in biodiversity management so as to align strategies for green financing as guided by relevant policies and guidelines. She stated that BIOFIN was currently working with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources to take stock of all subsidies in the agricultural sector and providing technical expertise to analyse their programmes.
This partnership, she said aims at redesigning some of the programmes to ensure they have a positive impact on Batswana.
In his remarks, BIOFIN technical advisor on environmental finance for African region-UNDP, Mr Bruno Mweemba said BIOFIN intends to ensure that the financial sector and private sector finance biodiversity projects and safeguard nature in their operations.
Mr Mweemba highlighted that BIOFIN was a global initiative that curated sustainable finance mechanisms and instruments that supported the cause for conservation of biodiversity globally. He said they provided capacity to the financial sector and other players around biodiversity in order for them to appreciate issues around financing gap.
He indicated that Government alone could not finance biodiversity efforts, which called for active participation of other players in the private sector to collectively frame reforms together with Government to finance biodiversity finance agenda.
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