RFP/BIOFIN/2604/22 Biodiversity positive enterprises pipeline development in SL

Biodiversity plays a key role in processes that support all life forms on the earth. Sri Lanka is considered as a biodiversity hotspot in the world due to its rich and unique biodiversity, including a high number of endemic species, and significant threats to its natural ecosystems. As a country with an agrarian economy, the economy of the country depends on the country’s rich biodiversity. Especially the key economic sectors such as agriculture and tourism depend on the health of biodiversity. The government of Sri Lanka has identified the importance of sustainable management of the country’s biodiversity and has taken several important steps to mitigate the threats on biodiversity but even though the efforts taken are inadequate. However, these efforts remain insufficient to address the scale of biodiversity loss

To exacerbate the situation, the government has a limited fiscal space and there is a significant reduction in the grant funded initiatives on sustainable biodiversity management in the country. Therefore, private sector financing has become critical to the biodiversity management. Financing does not limit to generate more revenue for conservation efforts. It includes future cost avoidance through investing on biodiversity friendly practices, realigning existing investments on other sectors with biodiversity friendly activities and increasing the efficiency of investments already earmarked for biodiversity management in addition to generating more revenue for biodiversity management actions. Mobilizing private sector investments on biodiversity management is an international commitment of the country as well under the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

As Sri Lanka has a relatively small private sector, mobilizing private capital for biodiversity management is a challenging task. Only way to address this issue in a sustainable way is to encourage private sector to internalize biodiversity into their business models so a win-win situation could be created for both private sector- increasing shareholder wealth- and public sector- promote sustainable use of biodiversity and hence increase the investments available for management of important biodiversity in the country

The overall objective of the assignment is to develop a biodiversity positive investment pipeline with the private sector of Sri Lanka. The lessons learnt through this consultancy would feed into establishing a national level platform for potential private sector investors to explore technical and financial feasibility of project ideas related to sustainable use of biodiversity