LocationsNature Pledge
How We Are Delivering
Applying the ambition and action the challenge demands
We need action
Over decades of global efforts to conserve biodiversity, the world has learned that our current trajectory is unsustainable. Breakthrough will be at points of shared values and common priorities, where we align environmental interests with development interests.
How will we get there?
UNDP will forge new narratives, partnerships, and solutions to trigger systems change and shift incentives to support the nature-positive trajectory.
Transformational Systems Shift Approach
Through our Nature Pledge, three interconnected shifts will be advanced, which are needed for countries to transform the global economic, financial, social and political systems that are perpetuating unsustainable consumption of our natural resources in ways that threaten lives and livelihoods.
1. A Global Value shift will be driven by interventions to change narratives, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours around nature to deliver a transformation in values. Old beliefs, attitudes and behaviours perpetuate false trade-offs between people and nature, development and the environment. As policies, legislation and regulatory frameworks change in response to the risks of biodiversity loss, these changes reinforce reasons to believe in a dismantling of outdated assumptions that economic development and environmental interests are mutually exclusive or a zero-sum trade-off. Regenerative and sustainable growth can create opportunities, security and peace for people while preventing the destruction of biodiversity and ecosystems. This is not only possible, but promises a thriving future on a healthy planet for generations to come.
2. An Economic and Finance shift that supports a transition from a nature-negative to nature-positive economy. For instance, consider the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures, which is incentivizing the private sector to align their business models with the Global Biodiversity Framework. Relatedly: the transformation of sectors and value chains toward nature-positive practices to create inclusive, long-term value and greener, decent, and higher quality jobs.
3. A Policy and Practice shift to deliver change at scale on the ground, led by countries and grounded in local communities and indigenous community knowledge. This is already a defining feature of the UN’s support through initiatives such as UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative and extensive Vertical Fund portfolio.
These shifts must unleash catalytic and cascading impacts, and trigger the necessary momentum, speed and scale of action and behaviour change on the ground, in all countries, to address our urgent planetary crisis.
Partners
Strategic partnerships are critical to the design and implementation of the UNDP Nature Pledge
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and the ambitious targets set in the Global Biodiversity Framework, the Paris Agreement, as well as other global agreements, a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach is needed to transform our economies and catalyse more sustainable forms of production and consumption through a just transition.
Delivering on the UNDP Nature Pledge at the speed and scale required depends on strategic alliances, as well as the formation of new coalitions and crowdsourcing of public and private finance at scale needed to secure a sustainable future for humanity. UNDP recognizes the power of such diverse alliances.
Through the UNDP Nature Pledge, we will work closely with sister UN agencies, UN member states, and other multilateral institutions, with key economic players such as financial institutions and corporates across sectors, and with civil society and Indigenous Peoples and local communities. We will leverage the diverse capabilities, resources, influence, and knowledge of all our partners including strengthened stakeholder dialogue platforms that promote better access to information, recourse, and meaningful participation if decision-making.
In line with UNDP policies and procedures, our engagement with these partners is also guided by a rigorous set of Social and Environmental Standards. These standards are designed to mitigate any unintended detrimental outcomes, while maximining positive SDG dividends through an iterative process of bottom-up demand-drive stakeholder engagement, meaningful dialogues, and grievance mechanisms. For our partnerships with the private sector, an additional set of due diligence procedures are employed and overseen by UNDP senior management, including various risk management measures.
These diverse and effective partnerships are vital to our country-level work as an integrator and convener across policy, programmatic and organizational silos, and as an operational accelerator for the United Nations and partners on the ground.
