Strengthening FinDev Canada's approach to nature finance
Organisation’s ambition
FinDev Canada, Canada's bilateral development finance institution (DFI), supports development through the private sector. It provides financing, investment, and blended finance solutions, as well as technical assistance and advisory, to promote sustainable and inclusive growth in emerging and developing markets. With growing attention on nature and biodiversity following the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, DFIs have the opportunity to engage in and promote nature finance through their investments.
With Climate and Nature Action as one of its three core development impact goals, in 2025, FinDev Canada set out to strengthen its approach to nature, define an implementation roadmap to track and measure nature finance, and build foundational knowledge across the organisation.
Our approach
FinDev Canada partnered with The Biodiversity Consultancy's (TBC) for tailored guidance to enhance its approach to nature and biodiversity. We supported them by:
1. Establishing a landscape overview and peer benchmarking
TBC benchmarked the peer practices of other DFIs’ approaches to nature and biodiversity. These spanned practices ranging across transaction-level risk management procedures, active investments in nature finance, and portfolio-level nature-related risks and opportunities disclosures.
The landscape overview mapped leading frameworks, metrics, and guidance for operationalising nature finance. These included the MDB Common Principles for Tracking Nature-positive Finance, IFC Biodiversity Reference Guide the World Bank Nature Finance Tracking Methodology, NPI’s State of Nature Metrics, and more.
2. Defining a roadmap for nature finance
TBC provided a practical roadmap to support FinDev Canada in advancing the proposed nature approach. Each of the short, medium and long-term phases of the roadmap recommended suitable frameworks, indications of resourcing needs, and milestones to signify readiness for the next stage. Recommended nature finance frameworks considered FinDev Canada’s mandate and operational realities, as well as opportunities in the development finance landscape.
3. Organisation-wide training and engagement with the leadership team
To foster expertise and awareness, TBC delivered an organisation-wide learning session for FinDev Canada’s staff, featuring practical and real-life examples. TBC also led a session with the leadership team to reinforce alignment and buy-in on the proposed roadmap and recommended frameworks.
Finally, FinDev Canada and TBC released a joint industry briefing on nature finance, sharing practical insights to support other DFIs and investors who are on a similar journey of enhancing their approach to nature.
Outcomes
The project provided FinDev Canada with a clear analysis and comparison of different nature finance assessment frameworks and their relative strengths and weaknesses, and benchmarking with peers and front-runners. The practical roadmap recommended frameworks to leverage and implement in a phased approach.
FinDev Canada also elevated nature finance awareness across leadership and the broader organisation, laying the foundation for the implementation of the approach. Finally, the insights shared in the briefing contribute to broader industry learning and demonstrate FinDev Canada’s proactive engagement in scaling nature finance.
