Protecting Biodiversity from Harmful Financing: Habitats with Threatened and Endemic Species, and Key Biodiversity Areas

A briefing by Friends of the Earth US urging banks and financiers to prohibit direct and indirect financing of activities that harm Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and habitats containing threatened or endemic species to prevent the estimated extinction of one million species.

• Friends of the Earth US argues that banks and financiers should adopt an institutional goal to stop and reverse biodiversity loss and restore ecosystem functions. To minimize impact, these institutions should prohibit financing in Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and habitats containing endemic species or species classified as Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered.
• Financial institutions face material risks from biodiversity loss through two primary channels: by directly driving negative impacts via specific financed activities, and through the systemic biodiversity loss (including pollution, climate change, over-exploitation of natural resources, and land use change) that these activities fuel, which threatens the long-term sustainability of investment sectors.
• The briefing identifies several failures in current biodiversity risk management: biodiversity tools and datasets should not be used as proxies for due diligence, and biodiversity offsets are considered ineffective as a mitigation measure.
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) documents are often inadequate or invalid due to conflicts of interest. The briefing recommends that financiers employ specialized staff to validate EIA findings and make these documents public to allow for independent verification.

APA

Friends of the Earth (2022). Protecting Biodiversity from Harmful Financing: Habitats with Threatened and Endemic Species, and Key Biodiversity Areas. https://foe.org/resources/no-go-areas-03/

Chicago

Friends of the Earth. Protecting Biodiversity from Harmful Financing: Habitats with Threatened and Endemic Species, and Key Biodiversity Areas. 2022. https://foe.org/resources/no-go-areas-03/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Friends of the Earth |title=Protecting Biodiversity from Harmful Financing: Habitats with Threatened and Endemic Species, and Key Biodiversity Areas |date=7 December 2022 |url=https://foe.org/resources/no-go-areas-03/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{friendsoftheearth2022protecting, author = {{Friends of the Earth}}, title = {{Protecting Biodiversity from Harmful Financing: Habitats with Threatened and Endemic Species, and Key Biodiversity Areas}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth}, year = {2022}, month = dec, url = {https://foe.org/resources/no-go-areas-03/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }