The eco.business Fund Development Facility co-sponsors ColomBIOdiversidad

The eco.business Fund Development Facility co-sponsors ColomBIOdiversidad

ColomBIOdiversidad is an annual festival organized by the French-Colombian NGO Envol Vert to promote the protection of biodiversity in Colombia. Together with the French Development Agency (AFD), the eco.business Development Facility co-sponsored the festival for the second year in a row, in line with its mission to promote business practices that contribute to biodiversity conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.

This fifth edition of ColomBIOdiversidad, which took place over the second half of May 2018, revolved around the slogan: “If the rivers could speak, what would they tell us?” Water was the focus of all 41 event activities held in 24 locations within Medellín and Bogotá.

The objective of the festival is to sensitize attendees about the importance of biodiversity and its protection, as well as to invite key players active in the protection of the environment of the country to develop new synergies. The varied program included photography and key message contests, film screenings, photographic exhibitions, workshops for children and students, and workshops with national and international experts. More than 140,000 attendees had the opportunity to learn more about the natural richness of the country.

The eco.business Fund spoke about the fund’s work at the festival’s launch event with the French Ambassador in Colombia, Gautier Mignot. The eco.business Fund also contributed to the discussions on “Water: Risks and Opportunities,” providing a vision of how to mobilize the financial sector for water conservation and to include it in the development agenda.

Watch a teaser video for the festival online.


About the eco.business Fund

The eco.business Fund is spearheading the promotion of business practices that contribute to the preservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of natural resources, and climate change mitigation and adaptation through private enterprises. By providing financing for business practices that conserve nature and foster biodiversity, the fund seeks investments with both financial and environmental returns. The fund mainly provides loans to qualified local financial institutions that lend the money to eligible borrowers, which include holders of recognized certifications or those making improvements in line with conservation and biodiversity goals. The fund supports sustainable operations in the sectors of agriculture, fishery, forestry and eco-tourism.

The eco.business Fund was initiated by Germany’s KfW Development Bank with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Commission, and the Austrian development bank OeEB. The fund’s growing investor base comprises donor agencies, international financial institutions and institutional private investors, including Conservation International, the Calvert Foundation, Dutch development bank FMO, German ethical bank GLS, and sustainable banking institution ASN Bank. Finance in Motion, a leading impact investing company, is also an investor.

Operating hand-in-hand with the eco.business Fund, the eco.business Development Facility provides high-impact technical assistance at the sector level to local lending institutions and final borrowers.

For more information, please visit www.ecobusiness.fund and follow us on Twitter @ecobusinessfund


About the eco.business Fund Development Facility

The eco.business Fund Development Facility was created in 2014 to support the environmental funding office. Its main goal is to maximize the impact of the Fund by complementing its investment activities with an efficient, specific and innovative assistance technique in the beneficiary countries.

The program is implemented through training projects, direct support to the financial sector and applied research, with the goal of strengthening the internal skills and the transactions of institutions associated with the Fund.

The cookies we set are only used for the length of your session for the purpose of anonymous, statistical assessments and for improving user-friendliness. We won't set optional cookies unless you enable them. For more detailed information about the cookies we use and how we use them please view our Privacy Notice. Click Accept or Reject to enable or disable cookies.