The Biodiversity Fund: Producing without harming the ecosystem
The conservation of biodiversity is still threatened by the large-scale plundering of natural resources, monocultures in agriculture, irresponsible use of pesticides and genetically modified organisms. Hivos supports activities that allow people to shape their own lives while at the same time protecting their ecosystems. Its most important tool in this area is the Biodiversity Fund (BDF).
Hivos and Oxfam Novib jointly manage the BDF. The Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation commissioned this project in 2001. The fund has a total spending budget of eight million euros.
The objective of the Biodiversity Fund is to promote the sustainable use of natural resources, preserving biodiversity and at the same time alleviating poverty. This is done by providing financial resources to organisations as effectively as possible, by further strengthening their capacity where possible and by advocacy to achieve this goal. In 2006 and 2007 the Biodiversity Fund granted 1.5 million euros of subsidies to 14 regional and global networks and organisations.
A substantial part of these funds was allocated to increasing the sustainability of production and to the marketing of sustainable products. This concerns organic produce but also timber products with the FSC quality seal and fish products with a Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) quality seal. An important aspect of this is the participation by small farmers in developing countries in these forms of production and marketing.
The Fund also supported attempts to harmonise certification procedures for social and environmental standards as well as for sustainable agricultural production. This will make it easier and less expensive for small producers to gain access to quality markets for their sustainable products.
Other activities are concerned with reducing the use of pesticides. The Fund’s strategies to achieve this goal are twofold: first, to make plantation workers and other pesticide users aware of the potential implications for their health and the environment and second, to translate their practical experience in the field into an international dangerous substances policy. The BDF also supports advocacy campaigns against the uncontrolled and unnecessary use of genetically modified organisms.
In November 2007 Hivos and Oxfam Novib jointly organised the conference ‘Social and Environmental Responsibility in Progress’, together with IUCN and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The key question addressed at this conference was: To what extent can quality systems contribute to the protection of biodiversity?
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