By Published On: February 21, 2025

Spreading the Word – Showcasing Solutions for Biodiversity Finance

For biodiversity finance to drive real change, it must be widely understood and trusted. BIO-CAPITAL’s Work Package 6, led by Oikoplus is developing a communication, dissemination and engagement strategy to bridge the gap between research and real-world impact.

Even the most innovative financial tools won’t make an impact if people don’t know about them. Biodiversity finance is still an unfamiliar concept for many investors, policymakers, and businesses. Without a clear understanding of how biodiversity investments work, financial decision-makers are unlikely to support conservation at the scale needed to reverse ecosystem degradation.

Think about how climate action gained momentum over the past decade—companies now proudly announce their carbon neutrality goals, and consumers have learned to assess products based on carbon footprints. But when was the last time you heard a business talk about its biodiversity impact? The issue isn’t a lack of concern but rather a lack of knowledge. Many investors and businesses don’t yet understand how to measure, fund, or benefit from biodiversity-positive actions.

Shaping the Conversation and Overcoming Communication Pitfalls

Communicating biodiversity finance comes with its own unique challenges. Unlike carbon emissions, which can be measured in simple tons, biodiversity is complex, site-specific, and multi-dimensional. It cannot be reduced to a single metric, making it harder to explain, track, and verify. Investors and businesses need clear and credible ways to understand how their contributions translate into real-world impact.

“One of the key challenges in this project is helping researchers translate their complex work into messages that resonate with non-scientific audiences. Through multi-channel communication, video production, and participatory methods, we aim to maximize the project’s impact by making biodiversity financing models accessible and compelling to a wider audience.” – Thomas Stollenwerk, OIKO+ GmbH

At the same time, biodiversity communication must avoid misleading narratives. One common pitfall is greenwashing, where companies exaggerate or misrepresent their biodiversity efforts. But this is just one of many challenges—others include overly technical language that alienates non-experts, a lack of transparency in financial mechanisms, and distrust from communities affected by conservation projects. WP6 is committed to ensuring that biodiversity finance is transparent, accessible, and grounded in evidence, avoiding these common communication traps.

To build trust and engagement, WP6 is developing a Communication and Dissemination Strategy (CoDiS) that lays out how to effectively reach different stakeholders. The project website will serve as a central hub for updates and key findings, while targeted press releases, newsletters, and social media campaigns will help raise awareness among policymakers, businesses, and the public.

Bringing the Use Cases to Life

WP6 plays a crucial role in communicating the findings of BIO-CAPITAL’s five real-world use cases, each demonstrating different approaches to biodiversity finance. These include:

These real-world examples make biodiversity finance tangible and relatable. WP6 ensures that the success stories, challenges, and lessons learned from these use cases are effectively communicated—not only to experts but to the wider public. The goal is to help investors, businesses, and governments see that financing biodiversity is not just an environmental duty but an opportunity for sustainable economic growth.

Making Biodiversity Finance a Lasting Movement

By the end of the project, WP6 will have produced key deliverables, including two policy briefs summarizing BIO-CAPITAL’s findings, a dissemination and exploitation plan, and a project website that remains accessible beyond the project’s lifespan. These tools will ensure that biodiversity finance doesn’t stay confined to research papers but becomes an essential part of how businesses, governments, and investors operate.

The challenge is clear: for biodiversity finance to be successful, it must move from a niche discussion to a mainstream investment strategy. WP6 is at the heart of this effort, making sure that the financial mechanisms developed in BIO-CAPITAL are not just understood—but actively used to reshape the future of conservation finance.