SANBI, OFB and AFD launch new technical exchange project to strengthen nature finance in South Africa
The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), France’s Office Français de la Biodiversité (OFB), and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) today formally signed a new technical exchange agreement for the ‘CAP4NATFIN FEXTE’ Project, marking a major step forward in strengthening capacities for nature finance in South Africa and the wider Southern African region.
CAP4NATFIN stands for ‘Capacities for Nature Finance – Strengthening the role of public biodiversity agencies in the structuring of a favourable environment for financing nature’. The ‘FEXTE’ mechanism is a technical exchange project format funded by AFD and approved by the French national treasury.
The signing ceremony took place at the Pretoria National Botanical Garden and builds on nearly four years of collaboration between SANBI and OFB, agencies located in different hemispheres but united by shared priorities in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
The new project follows the success of the first FEXTE-funded Partnership for Biodiversity and Marine Conservation (#SA-FRPartnership4Biodiversity), launched in 2022 and implemented jointly by SANBI, OFB and South African National Parks (SANParks), with support from AFD. That partnership, which continues into 2027, is delivering significant outcomes for all three of the biodiversity institutions involved, including knowledge exchange, capacity development, and strengthened international cooperation. Mechanisms for cooperation include study tours, in-person workshops, participation at global conferences, and technical products and consultancies.
“The success of the first FEXTE partnership gives us confidence that this next technical exchange on capacities for nature finance will be of immense value,” SANBI CEO, Mr Shonisani Munzhedzi, noted at the signing ceremony. “South Africa is still at an early stage of engagement with the rapidly evolving field of nature finance. For SANBI, this project will help clarify the role of a national biodiversity institute in mobilising, tracking and shaping financial flows for nature-positive outcomes.”
The Director General of the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), Mr Olivier Thibault, emphasised that as public funding for biodiversity continues to decline, innovative nature finance mechanisms will be essential to secure sustainable resources for conservation into the future.
Ms Marie-Hélène Loison, AFD Regional Director for Southern Africa, reaffirmed AFD’s commitment to supporting countries in the region to strengthen biodiversity assessment and knowledge systems. She highlighted the agency’s strong and ongoing investment in biodiversity, which currently focuses on the identification of innovative finance tools for nature and linkages with the private sector in order to ensure the establishment of long term support mechanisms for conservation.
The initiative comes at a particularly crucial moment. SANBI, together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), has recently completed a comprehensive review of South Africa’s Biodiversity Expenditure (2016–2025). The findings reveal a growing biodiversity finance gap that increasingly constrains the country’s ability to conserve and sustainably use its rich biodiversity.
In response, the CAP4NATFIN FEXTE Project will strengthen South Africa’s biodiversity finance architecture by supporting the refinement of a national biodiversity finance taxonomy and improving methodologies for tracking resource mobilisation across public and private sectors. This includes the development of the budget tagging system from all sources, expenditure tracking, and performance indicators.
The project, supported by OFB’s expertise as a technical institution, will also reinforce SANBI’s institutional role in monitoring and reporting on Targets 14, 15, 18 and 19 of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, ensuring the generation of robust, decision-useful data for national reporting and for the growing private-sector demand for biodiversity-related disclosures within ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks.
Ultimately, the initiative positions SANBI’s Technical and Scientific Cooperation Support Centre under the Convention on Biological Diversity as a central node linking public policy, scientific data and financial systems, helping to unlock and better direct finance toward biodiversity outcomes in South Africa and across the nine countries supported by the Centre.
Partners expressed their hope that this FEXTE project will lay the foundation for larger-scale nature finance initiatives across the region.
Enquiries:
SANBI
Sasha Marishane
Twentry8Zero7
E: Sashas@twenty8zero7.com
T: 079 056 7551
OFB
Lisa Boukraa
Attachée de presse
Office français de la biodiversité (OFB)
E : presse@ofb.gouv.fr
T : +33 (0) 6 67 98 05 13
AFD
Camille Thoumyre
Project Officer | Biodiversity, Food Security, and Rural Development
AFD Regional office for Southern Africa
E: thoumyrec@afd.fr
T : +27(0) 66 280 6611