The Finance for Biodiversity (FfB) Foundation Impact Report 2025 marks a critical turning point for the financial sector. Five years ago, biodiversity was rarely mentioned in institutional strategies, but today, over 200 signatories to the FfB Pledge, managing more than €23 trillion in assets, are actively integrating nature-related considerations into their strategies and financing activities. This policy brief distils insights from a survey of 126 signatories, outlining progress and identifying where government support is essential to accelerate the transition towards a nature-positive global economy.

Introduction: from pledge to progress

The financial community now recognises that nature-related physical, regulatory, and systemic risks are rising, alongside significant opportunities for long-term value creation. This report connects survey findings to the FfB Foundation’s policy objectives, specifically the alignment of financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Achieving these goals requires public and private collaboration, coherent policy signals, and robust disclosure frameworks to translate momentum into the scale of capital required for global nature recovery.

Background: the history of FfB policy asks and activities

Since 2020, the FfB Foundation has advocated for international agreements that address the alignment of financial flows and improved disclosure of biodiversity impacts. The foundation’s 2024 policy paper identified four key recommendations: nature-related disclosure requirements, mandated transition plans, central bank action, and economic incentives. The current impact report tracks how these asks influence private sector practices, emphasizing the need to reduce harmful financial flows and channel investment into activities that enhance natural assets and sustainable production.

1- Drive ambition and transparency in the private finance sector

The report demonstrates strong progress in policy integration, with 98% of FfB Pledge signatories having a nature-related policy, compared to a weighted market average of 55%. Collaboration is a major driver of this ambition, with 54% of institutions already working with public authorities. However, further guidance is needed on topics such as portfolio integration, target-setting, and considerations for Indigenous Peoples. Governments are encouraged to support these collaborative fora as vital sources of knowledge-sharing and capacity-building.

Transparency is another key pillar, with 66% of respondents covering disclosure in their policies. While over 700 organisations have adopted the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) recommendations, significant data gaps persist. Currently, only 25% of respondents conduct spatially explicit or location-specific assessments, with many still relying on modelled data. Policymakers can drive transparency by requiring nature-related disclosures, supporting open-source spatial data, and ensuring interoperability between reporting standards.

2- Lead the nature positive transition of the economy

Financial institutions are increasingly demanding a nature-positive transition through active corporate engagement and target-setting. Collaborative engagement is high, with 79% of respondents taking part, focusing on topics like deforestation (67%), general biodiversity (63%), and sustainable agriculture (53%). Conversely, ocean-related topics have not yet emerged as major engagement themes. Target-setting is also gaining ground, with 67% of signatories embedding biodiversity targets into their strategies, though progress is often limited to areas with advanced data and regulation.

To move beyond broad commitments, the report calls for science-informed, time-bound targets underpinned by clear stewardship pathways. A significant barrier to this progress is the low number of transition plans currently published by companies. Governments can address this by mandating integrated climate and nature transition plans and developing sectoral transformation pathways aligned with national environmental goals. As of November 2025, only 60 Parties had published their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), highlighting a need for faster public-sector action.

3- Create economic incentives for positive impact

Ambition for nature-positive outcomes is high, with 54% of surveyed institutions already allocating over €53 billion towards biodiversity products and investments. Despite this, capital is heavily concentrated in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Barriers to scaling these investments include insufficient data and knowledge (43%), perceived risks of investing in nature (32%), and a lack of credible frameworks (30%). Public-private partnerships and aligned incentives remain essential to de-risk and catalyse finance in these areas.

Policymakers have the opportunity to mobilise capital at scale by reorienting tax policies, reforming harmful subsidies, and developing sovereign green finance instruments. The FfB Foundation has developed models, such as the Sovereign Debt Nature Assessment Model, to help identify risks and opportunities in these portfolios. Governments can further support this by designing de-risking instruments like blended finance and guarantees, and establishing taxonomies that enable credible economic opportunities for nature-positive outcomes.

Summary of policy expectations

The FfB Foundation outlines several expectations for policymakers, including the promotion of nature-related disclosure and investment in data infrastructure. Governments should mandate transition plans for both companies and financial institutions and lead the development of transformation pathways for high-impact sectors. Reforming market mechanisms and subsidies is critical to reduce barriers and de-risk strategies for nature. These recommendations should be underpinned by a whole-of-government approach to ensure systemic change and the mobilisation of resources at speed.

Conclusion

The financial sector’s journey towards active biodiversity integration is accelerating, but a robust enabling environment is required to translate this ambition into scale. Public-private collaboration, data transparency, and fiscal levers are the linchpins of this transition. As UN Biodiversity COP17 approaches, governments must deliver on their commitments and publish their NBSAPs to increase coherence and build confidence for all stakeholders in the pursuit of halting biodiversity loss by 2030.