reporter
Name Affiliation Title Toru Yoshida Planning Department Sustainability Promotion Office Planning Officer
summary
Date: November 18, 2025
Co-sponsored by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), UNEP-WCMC (United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Center), IDFC (International Development Finance Club)
Name of venue (pavilion name)：IDFC Pavilion
speaker
Name Affiliation Toru Yoshida Sustainability Promotion Office, Planning Department Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Rodrigo Garcia Ramos Tosta Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) Atika Ben Maid French Development Agency (AFD) Alexander von Kapuhl German Finance Corporation for Reconstruction (KfW) Angela Toulmin KfW Manuel Pulgar Vidal World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Background and Objectives
As the impacts of climate change, such as floods, droughts, and sea level rise, become more severe around the world, affecting the economies and government budgets of vulnerable regions, there is an urgent need to build resilience by expanding adaptation funding through nature-based solutions (NbS). NbS provides low-cost, sustainable adaptation measures through mangrove restoration and wetland conservation, as well as co-benefits such as improved biodiversity and livelihoods, but investment remains scarce. Barriers include unclear policies, lack of revenue-generating projects, risk perception, and lack of indicators. To address these barriers, WWF and UNEP-WCMC are building a global platform, PLAN. This meeting will analyze barriers, introduce successful models, and promote collaboration to form a technical basis for expanding NbS investment.
Contents
JICA discussed challenges and opportunities for increasing adaptation funding for nature-based solutions (NbS), JICA introduced an integrated approach to NbS that combines technical and financial cooperation and covers a wide range of activities in four areas including forest conservation and water resources management; BNDES emphasized the profitability of adaptation investments; AFD noted a lack of indicators and concerns about “concrete bias”; KfW cited the Mozambique flood case and called for mainstreaming biodiversity; and DBSA shared criticisms of NbS assessment methods. KfW called for mainstreaming biodiversity, citing the case of flooding in Mozambique, and DBSA shared criticism of the NbS evaluation methodology. Other diverse case studies were presented, including the vertical challenges of the Adaptation Fund and the Gambia’s marine project with women’s participation. To solve these issues, WWF and UNEP-WCMC are building a global platform “PLAN,” and the direction to expand NbS investment through public-private partnerships and innovative financial models was confirmed.
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