- Latin America and the Caribbean will accelerate investments in biodiversity and natural capital over the next four years thanks to continued collaboration between the IDB Group and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
- A new tranche of GEF funding will focus on biodiversity, land restoration, pollution reduction, and resilience, using innovation and private-sector engagement to multiply results.
Latin America and the Caribbean is home to unparalleled biodiversity — but it is also one of the regions most exposed to nature shocks, land degradation, and pollution. As countries seek to turn their environmental commitments into tangible results, financing alone is not enough.
It’s important to combine global environmental ambition with the financing, policy dialogue, and delivery capacity that countries need to scale solutions. This is where the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Inter American Development Bank Group (IDB Group) come together.
The GEF has recently received new funding through June 30, 2030, for its ninth replenishment (GEF-9), channeling resources into high-impact initiatives across the region in areas such as biodiversity, land degradation, international waters, chemicals and waste, and resilience.
That will allow our collaboration to further expand its regional impact, which totals $447 million in GEF financing and has leveraged $3.9 billion in co-financing to date.
Since 2004, the IDB Group has served as one of 18 GEF implementing agencies, channeling resources into high-impact initiatives across Latin America and the Caribbean and helping countries deliver on priority environmental commitments.
The partnership combines GEF grant and non-grant financing with IDB Group financing and technical expertise to design and deliver projects that are both environmentally ambitious and aligned with national priorities. By blending grants, technical cooperation, loans, guarantees, and other instruments, countries can de-risk investments and mobilize private capital, helping move from pilots to scaled solutions.
The fresh GEF resources, totaling $3.9 billion to finance projects in diffrent regions of the world, come from countries' initial pledges for June 2026 through June 2030. Working with the GEF, the IDB Group aims to direct resources destined to Latin America and the Caribbean into biodiversity, land restoration, chemical pollution reduction, and resilience — using innovation and private-sector engagement to multiply results in the region.
For Latin America and the Caribbean, this represents an opportunity to connect global environmental benefits with national development outcomes — when financing, policy, and implementation are integrated from the start.
Through this collaboration, the IDB Group can help countries in the region convert these new resources into scaled programs by pairing concessional financing with investment-grade project preparation, policy support, and co-financing mobilization, especially where nature and adaptation outcomes depend on broader infrastructure, land-use, and financial-sector decisions.
This partnership works because, beyond financing, the IDB Group supports policy dialogue, convenes public and private actors, generates knowledge, and helps countries build the institutions needed to sustain results, using GEF resources and expertise as a catalyst for larger, longer-term investment.
Five practical advantages explain why this collaboration is well-suited to scale impact in Latin America and the Caribbean:
1) Country Ownership and Policy Relevance
Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean benefit from the IDB Group’s nearly seven decades of continuous engagement in the region, which brings deep knowledge of national contexts and long-standing relationships with governments. This positions the IDB Group to align GEF-9 investments with countries’ development priorities and bridge global environmental goals with the fiscal, institutional, and political realities that protect implementation and sustainability.
Through regional platforms, the IDB Group convenes economy and finance ministries to integrate considerations on nature, air pollution, and adaptation into economic decision-making, helping countries connect environmental commitments to budgets, investment planning, and reforms.
In addition, technical cooperation supported by GEF, with Stanford’s Natural Capital Alliance, has helped countries including Belize, Chile, and Colombia strengthen policy coherence and build analytical tools, so governments can incorporate the value of nature into planning and public policy.
2) Innovative Financing, Non-Grant Instruments and Private Sector Mobilization
Concessional resources from GEF can be catalytic — but only if they are structured to unlock larger flows of public and private financing. The IDB Group brings experience in blended financing and risk mitigation, so countries can turn concepts into investable operations that attract co-financing.
By combining GEF grants and non-grant instruments with IDB Group financial solutions, such as technical cooperation, loans, guarantees, and advisory support, the partnership helps de-risk deals, mobilize private capital, and scale solutions faster for countries.
Recent operations in the region illustrate this approach, including a public-sector oriented debt-for-nature conversion facility, facilities that improve management of hazardous chemicals and waste, and IDB Lab initiatives that help start-ups access early-stage financing.
The result is a portfolio that can blend concessional resources with policy reform and private-sector investment to deliver outcomes at scale, rather than isolated pilots.
3) Programmatic Approach, Cross-Sector Solutions and Operational Expertise
The IDB Group brings a pipeline of large, multi-country initiatives designed as integrated solutions — linking biodiversity, resilience, land degradation, water-body management, chemicals and waste, the circular economy, and other areas with development programs in sectors such as energy, transport, agriculture, cities, and water.
This integrated approach is essential for countries to meet their national objectives in a cost-effective way, while scaling the impact of GEF-9. Experience shows that the greatest impact often comes from cross-sector reforms and investments that reduce risk from extreme-weather events and strengthen long-term sustainability.
On the IDB Group side, scalability is driven by the complementary work of its three arms: the IDB works with the public sector, IDB Invest mobilizes private investment, and IDB Lab accelerates innovation. Together, these capabilities enable environmental outcomes to be embedded directly into project planning, financing, and implementation.
4) Strong Portfolio Management and Track Record
Countries can also benefit from the IDB Group’s strong implementation capacity and commitment to transparent reporting, which support effective delivery and accountability across projects.
According to the GEF Independent Evaluation Office’s Annual Performance Report 2025, the IDB achieved 100% timely submission of terminal evaluations, outperforming overall agency averages, enhancing learning, and ensuring that results are systematically captured and shared.
This track record is reflected in the scale of ongoing support through the active IDB Group-GEF portfolio, helping countries advance their environmental and development priorities.
5) Knowledge and Regional Learning
For countries, knowledge generation, evaluation, and regional learning is also a key benefit of the partnership between the IDB Group and the GEF.
The IDB Group helps translate project experience into practical guidance for governments, investors, and practitioners — sharing lessons across countries so successful models can be adapted and replicated faster across the region.
Knowledge sharing is delivered through events, publications, and training programs, including:
- A massive online open course, or MOOC, on natural capital valuation, to help practitioners apply these approaches in policy and investment decisions. This was developed in partnership between Stanford’s Natural Capital Alliance, the GEF and the IDB.
- GEF-funded knowledge products that help teams move from concept to implementation, such as a debt-for-nature operational guidance and a regional analysis estimating what it would take to meet the 30x30 global conservation goal in the region.
Latin America and the Caribbean can be a global leader in delivering positive outcomes on biodiversity, land use, pollution, and resilience — but only if financing is paired with strong institutions, investment pipelines, and delivery capacity.
With more than two decades as a GEF implementing agency, the IDB Group is ready to work with countries, the private sector, and partners to convert GEF-9 priorities into integrated programs that are designed to scale — mobilizing co-financing, strengthening policy frameworks, and tracking results.
This partnership will also be on display at the eighth GEF Assembly, taking place on May 30 to June 6, 2026.
The IDB Group will host two side events with partners to advance the GEF‑9 agenda, focusing on practical approaches to scaling the impact financing in Latin America and the Caribbean. These include “IDB’s Debt-for-Nature Conversions and the Role of Conservation Trust Funds,” and a joint multilateral development banks (MDBs) event titled “Catalyzing Transformation: Leveraging MDB Partnerships to Maximize GEF Impact in an ODA-Constrained World,” as well as IDB’s participation in a high-level roundtable organized by the GEF Secretariat on blended finance and private sector engagement.