Workshop: Toward Nature-Positive Finance – Scientific Foundations for Action

Biodiversa+, together with Banque de France, the BiodivRestore Knowledge Hub, the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), and the RESPIN project, will co-organise a high-level workshop on 10 June 2026 in Paris.

The event aims to strengthen the interface between science, policy, and finance, and to support the transition toward nature-positive financial systems, in line with growing European and global policy momentum.

The workshop will bring together central banks, financial institutions, investors, researchers, European Commission representatives, and business coalitions. Discussions will focus on how scientific knowledge and emerging methodologies can help identify and manage nature-related risks, inform decision-making, and support the redirection of financial flows toward biodiversity-positive outcomes.

Why this workshop?

Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are increasingly recognised as material nature-related risks to economic performance, financial stability, and long-term value creation. Yet the persistent failure to account for nature, and to integrate its values into economic and financial systems, has contributed to continued ecosystem degradation and a decline in nature’s contributions to people, including essential ecosystem services.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) provides a clear policy signal by calling on businesses and financial institutions to:

• assess and manage their impacts and dependencies on nature (Target 15);
• eliminate or reform incentives harmful to biodiversity (Target 18);
• mobilise, scale up, and redirect financial flows toward biodiversity-positive outcomes (Target 19).

Despite this momentum, financial flows remain insufficiently aligned with biodiversity objectives. A key barrier is the limited availability of decision-useful scientific reference points, including robust baselines, validated methodologies, spatial indicators, and clearer insights into systemic risks and trade-offs. These gaps make it difficult for public and private actors to effectively integrate biodiversity considerations into risk management, governance, and investment decisions.

Objectives

Drawing on recent assessments from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), including the Business and Biodiversity, Nexus, and Transformative Change assessments, the workshop will explore how science can better support financial and economic decision-makers.

The programme will combine plenary sessions with interactive discussions, inviting participants to:

• examine real-world constraints faced by financial actors,
• identify key decision bottlenecks,
• articulate priorities and needs for public research, and
• explore conditions that enable the uptake of scientific tools and approaches.

Breakout discussions will address themes such as restoration planning as a stress test for evidence gaps, modelling and methodological validation, the role of Indigenous and local knowledge, harmful incentives and financial misalignments, and emerging nature-related financial instruments, including nature credits.

The workshop will also contribute to ongoing international discussions on biodiversity and finance, including preparations for COP17 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, by highlighting opportunities to strengthen science–finance cooperation.