by Barbara Calvi and Indekhwa Anangwe
As another powerful El Niño event unfolds, millions of people are bracing for its consequences. Drought, floods, crop failures and disruptions to trade and food systems are expected to affect communities across the globe, with particularly significant impacts in Africa. In countries such as Sudan and Chad, El Niño-related weather patterns are projected to by 18-20%, while extreme rainfall and prolonged drought threaten critical infrastructure and supply chains.
These realities reinforce a central message from the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP17: economic resilience and ecological resilience are inseparable. Countries cannot build sustainable growth, food security or long-term prosperity without investing in the natural systems that underpin them. Strengthening biodiversity, restoring ecosystems and building climate-resilient value chains are no longer environmental priorities alone. They are now economic imperatives.
At COP17, FSD Africa, the brought together leaders from finance, policy, conservation and industry. Their shared challenge was clear: how can Africa build an economy that creates value from its natural assets while protecting the ecosystems on which that value depends?
The answer lies in strengthening Africa’s bioeconomy. The bioeconomy uses renewable biological resources and knowledge to create food, materials, products and services in ways that regenerate rather than deplete nature. From agriculture and forestry to fisheries, biotechnology and nature-based enterprises, the bioeconomy offers a pathway to economic growth that is rooted in the sustainable use of natural resources. Yet unlocking this potential requires more than ambition. It demands investment-ready opportunities, supportive policy frameworks and financial markets capable of pricing, valuing and rewarding nature-positive outcomes.
Across three COP17 sessions, participants explored how to accelerate investment into nature-based value chains, strengthen climate resilience across productive sectors, and harness opportunities in the bioeconomy, including the blue bioeconomy. Discussions also addressed one of the continent’s most pressing challenges: reversing the degradation of marine and freshwater ecosystems while creating sustainable livelihoods and economic opportunities.
A consistent theme emerged throughout the conversations. Africa is rich in natural capital and innovation, but progress will depend on building the systems that connect both to finance. The priority is no longer demonstrating that nature has economic value. It is creating the institutions, investment vehicles and market mechanisms that can channel capital towards sustainable enterprises at scale, generating lasting benefits for people, prosperity and the natural world.
Building an investable African bioeconomy
The bioeconomy offers an opportunity to make nature an engine of economic development rather than treating biodiversity protection and economic growth as competing priorities.
At the COP17 Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) Pavilion, the discussion brought together perspectives from NatureFinance, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), FSD Africa and ANCA, exploring opportunities spanning regenerative land economies, the blue bioeconomy and biodiversity-based innovation. A recurring theme was the importance of strengthening local value chains and food systems while finding the right balance between domestic value addition and international trade opportunities.
This matters because scaling Africa’s bioeconomy is not simply about finding a handful of successful businesses. It is about creating the enabling conditions in which a much broader pipeline of businesses can emerge, grow and attract investment.
The discussions also reinforced the importance of keeping communities and smallholder producers at the heart of this transition. Examples from regenerative agriculture and seaweed processing demonstrated how bioeconomy value chains can connect biodiversity objectives with livelihoods and local economic opportunities.
Unlocking the blue bioeconomy
These questions became even more tangible in a dedicated discussion on the blue bioeconomy, the part of the bioeconomy building directly on marine and freshwater resources. Bringing together perspectives from the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) the discussion explored some of the practical barriers that continue to prevent capital from reaching nature-positive opportunities at scale.
Despite growing investor interest in nature-positive opportunities, many businesses and projects in the blue economy remain too small or fragmented to attract investment at scale. The discussion therefore focused not simply on whether capital exists, but on how opportunities can be structured so that capital can reach them.
Aggregation emerged as one answer. Rather than expecting individual small projects or enterprises to meet institutional investors’ requirements independently, portfolios can bring opportunities together, supported by project preparation and investment-readiness technical assistance programmes. Stable and predictable regulatory environments are also important, particularly in emerging sectors, such as aquaculture, where uncertainty around permitting or market access can make investment more difficult.
The conversation also highlighted an increasingly important part of the nature-finance equation: insurance.
As climate and nature risks evolve, some activities and landscapes are becoming more difficult and costly to insure. This is particularly true for properties and businesses in coastal areas, which tend to be particularly exposed to extreme weather events and the effects of climate change and nature degradation. Addressing that challenge requires a clearer understanding of who bears nature-related risk, who benefits from functioning ecosystems, and who could contribute to measures that reduce those risks.
Better nature data could help. The session heard that environmental and biological indicators are increasingly relevant to assessing future risk, while approaches that consider whole landscapes, as opposed to assets in isolation, can help capture risks that cascade across assets, supply chains and value chains.
The discussions at COP 17 point towards a broader shift in thinking: nature With attention now turning to COP31, the opportunity is to carry this momentum forward, ensuring that nature and climate are considered together and translating these discussions into practical financial solutions that deliver for Africa.
[BC8]Dorothy and I discussed whether there is an opportunity to add the El Nino angle here? As opposed to creating a standalone piece.
[BC12]Can we mention the other speakers’ organisations? In this case UNEP-FI and EIB.
