Biodiversity Experts from different sectors met in Harare on 18th – _19th June 2026 for the Technical Validation and Consultation Workshop for Zimbabwe BIOFIN Programme spearheaded by the Government of Zimbabwe with the technical support of United Nations Development Programme
By Tendai Keith Guvamombe
The country’s biodiversity future is expected to be marked with a difference as stakeholders consented to serve, promote and instil national pride endowed in it’s natural resources through the composition of different acts into a broad framework named Zimbabwe’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BioFin).
The realization comes at the back of the government’s greater acknowledgement of Biodiversity Sector as a resource base with myriad untapped opportunities for supporting growing the economy.
The BioFin Programme comes both as a framework and a systematic approach to institute funding mechanisms toward fulfillment of the country’s Biodiversity goals.
The push comes from:
- Zimbabwe is a signatory to a number of Multilateral Agreements on Environment and Biodiversity in the likes of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of 1994, Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety 2005, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Ramsar Convention on Wetlands among others – a successful BioFin Programme for Zimbabwe will be a thumbs-up towards domestication of these regional and international treaties.
- The perspective on the Emerging Markets (EM) in the context of Climate Financing presents funding opportunities for the country to implement its BioFin Programme. This comes amid major shift of events on the global arena where private capital is a big deal in implementing sustainability and green investments in the low and middle income countries (LMIC) .
- Biodiversity is not a tangential issue but the literal foundation of Zimbabwe’s key economic drivers—particularly agriculture, tourism, and mining—which depend directly on healthy ecosystems for water, soil fertility, pollination, and scenic landscapes. Private sector financing is therefore a strategic business imperative to mitigate climate and supply-chain risks, ensure the longevity of raw material sourcing, and protect the natural assets that underpin corporate profitability, employment, and Zimbabwe’s broader economic stability.
- Technical Experts at the BIOFIN Zimbabwe Multi-Stakeholder Technical Validation and Consultation Workshop held on 18th–19th June 2026 in Harare viewed a consolidated BIOFIN Plan as an indicator to stimulate additional funding from the current fiscal budget.
A look into the Third National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP 2025–2030), the investment requirement in meeting the Biodiversity goals goes beyond the projected US$200 million annually.
This entails how BIOFIN Programme will be a financial tool in closing existing funding gaps.
A dive into the ongoing efforts signals urgent need of additional support to complement the works of experts drawn from different sectors to advance commitments towards completion of a consolidated Zimbabwe BioFin Programme. This goes beyond broadening their technical expertise, sector specific capacity building and equipping the media to effectively mainstream the whole programme in essence.
“Given Zimbabwe’s significant and persistent biodiversity financing gap, public resources alone are insufficient to implement the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) and achieve the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets. The private sector represents a vital, under-tapped source of capital—from corporate social responsibility and supply-chain investments to innovative mechanisms like biodiversity offsets—which is essential to supplement constrained government budgets and scale up cost-effective conservation actions.” says Lawrence Mashungu, a Biodiversity Finance Specialist leading the development of Zimbabwe’s Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFN).
The task may sound fragile on a short-term basis but the tenacity to propel a long-range biodiversity yield will forever speak same language that resonates well with Sustainable Development Mellenium Goals.
This will lead into a new level of discussions that goes beyond mere preservation of flora and fauna towards a full functional biodiversity economy.
About the Writer :
Tendai Keith Guvamombe is a Climate Change Media Practitioner. Some of his writings complement works of experts in Sustainability and Climate Financing.
You may get in touch with him on:
tendaiguvamombe3@gmail.com