Quito II Dialogue

Following the success of the 2012 Quito dialogue, countries and other actors wanted SwedBio to co-organise a second dialogue, as part of the preparations for the 12th Conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP12) in the Republic of Korea in October 2014

The Quito II dialogue “Scaling up biodiversity finance – with a focus on the value of biodiversity for policy choices, mainstreaming and funding”, was held in Quito in April 2014 and convened by the governments of Ecuador, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Norway, Sweden, Uganda, the European Commission and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Nearly 90 participants – nominated via the CBD Secretariat from Parties and Non-parties – attended the dialogue including government representatives, members of civil society organisations, intergovernmental institutions, academia and indigenous peoples.

The dialogue was organised along similar lines to Quito I. The purpose of the dialogue was to explore ways to scale up the mobilization of financial resources to support the achievement of  the CBD’s 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets. The objectives of the Quito II were: to contribute to the shared understanding and clarification of areas of where views converged and diverged; on values of biodiversity; to review ways and means to integrate different kinds of values of biodiversity in national planning, decision-making and multilateral processes; and to enhance the understanding of mechanisms for mobilizing financial and non-financial resources, including principles and safeguards.

Valuation of biodiversity to mechanisms for financing biodiversity

The seminar covered Mainstreaming biodiversity; Overview of financing mechanisms; Governance, safeguards and equity; Incentives and options for financing such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), compensation schemes, subsidies, and Biodiversity Offsets; private and financial sectors; fiscal reforms and international levies; synergies for biodiversity financing, in terms of climate change, Sustainable Development Goals, and Overseas Development Assistance.

It was acknowledged that valuation of biodiversity can be done using a number of methods – from dialogues with relevant actors who communicate and demonstrate qualitative values, to valuation in quantitative and economic terms. It was also discussed that the term ‘innovative finance mechanisms ’ (IFMs) is misleading since very few of the mechanisms are in fact innovative. Other terms were suggested, such as biodiversity finance mechanisms (BFMs) or environment policy/economic instruments. The importance of safeguards for any mechanism was discussed, partly elaborating on the safeguards paper that resulted from needs expressed in the first Quito meeting and later negotiations under CBD.

The co-chairs report from the meeting became an official information document to the CBD negotiations. The outcomes of the seminar were presented on the first day of the preparatory negotiations before COP12, and the Quito II dialogue was referred to in the negotiation text for COP 12.

More detailed elaborations of the seminar discussions and outcomes are available in the Co-chairs’ summary report (pdf, 6.6 MB) of the Quito II Dialogue.