– growth signals increasing international support for biodiversity conservation efforts

MEMBERSHIP of the Global Biodiversity Alliance has grown from just 17 founding members to 125 members in less than a year, a development that Guyana says is creating new opportunities to advance biodiversity conservation and unlock financing for environmental protection initiatives.
Director of Climate and REDD+ at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Pradeepa Bholanath, highlighted the alliance’s rapid expansion during a recent appearance on the Starting Point Podcast, describing it as a major achievement for Guyana and a sign of growing global recognition of the importance of biodiversity conservation.
“The Global Biodiversity Alliance was a big moment for Guyana because it allowed for us to expand the focus from forest carbon services to now biodiversity-related services,” Bholanath said.
She explained that while Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) initially centred on forest carbon services, the country’s vast forests are part of ecosystems that support an extraordinary range of plant and animal life.
“It’s about protecting trees and forests, but those trees and those forests really sit within an ecosystem that is so tremendously biodiverse,” she noted.
The Global Biodiversity Alliance was launched by President Dr. Irfaan Ali in July last year with 17 members representing governments, civil society organisations, indigenous peoples and local organisations, as well as private sector entities. According to Bholanath, the alliance has since experienced significant growth.
“To date, I’m pleased to note that that membership has expanded to 125 members from 17 members back in July, and that has been really a game changer,” she said.
The expanded membership, she noted, has generated increasing interest from the private sector and strengthened international collaboration on biodiversity issues.
Bholanath pointed out that several major development institutions have also joined the alliance, including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
“We now have to date all the development banks within our region as part of the membership of the Global Biodiversity Alliance,” she said.
The growing support she said is helping to create new avenues for financing biodiversity conservation, an area that is expected to become a major focus of the alliance’s work going forward.
“That kind of momentum really is opening a lot of new frontiers in terms of looking at ways in which we can finance biodiversity conservation,” she said.
As part of that effort, Guyana is expected to host a biodiversity financing summit in the final quarter of this year. The conference, first announced by President Ali, is intended to move discussions beyond scientific research and towards practical mechanisms for mobilising resources for conservation activities.
Bholanath said biodiversity conservation is not merely an environmental issue but one that directly affects people’s daily lives. She noted that biodiversity supports food production, safeguards water resources, helps prevent flooding and erosion, and sustains the livelihoods of indigenous communities.