Biodiversity

Biodiversity secures our food systems, mitigates the impacts of climate change, regulates the water cycle, and is a cornerstone of the global economy. However, intensive land use, environmental pollution, climate change, and the exploitation of natural resources pose serious threats to these ecosystem services. Worldwide, up to 1,000,000 species are at risk of extinction, and the condition and extent of natural ecosystems have, on average, deteriorated by 47% compared to their earliest known state (IPBES 2019).

We provide comprehensive support to decision-makers in the planning, implementation, and optimization of projects on marine and terrestrial biodiversity, REDD+, and forest and peatland initiatives. We place particular emphasis on projects that link biodiversity conservation with climate change mitigation and/or adaptation. For example, we evaluated a GIZ project in Laos that supported the REDD+ Emission Reductions Program by strengthening the legal and regulatory framework for the forestry sector and improving access to finance for sustainable forest use. Another example is our evaluation of the GIZ project BIOCITIS, in which we analyzed how the project successfully integrated biodiversity and ecosystem services into the planning and management tools of coastal cities and regions in Mexico. In our projects, it has been—and, wherever appropriate, continues to be—especially important to incorporate the voices of affected populations and marginalized groups as comprehensively as possible into our analyses. In doing so, we aim for a nuanced and as complete as possible understanding of each situation.

In addition, we conducted a meta-evaluation of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) in the field of ecosystem-based adaptation, which included an assessment of 33 IKI projects. We also support IKI in the selection and evaluation of biodiversity conservation projects.

At the national level, we likewise contribute to the integration of biodiversity considerations—for example, by advising German state governments on how to incorporate these issues into their climate action plans, or through projects supporting the Federal Government’s Action Programme on Natural Climate Protection (ANK).