Ecosystem services “on the move” as a nature-based solution for financing the Global Biodiversity Framework

Abstract

Abstract The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) aims to halt global biodiversity loss. However, its implementation process will need strategic financing particularly to address the divide between the Global North and Global South. Highly migratory marine vertebrates (henceforth marine megafauna) connect distant ecosystems providing ecosystem services across jurisdictions with considerably different conservation interests and economic ability to pay for biodiversity protection. Although such migratory behaviour presents a specially challenging case for protection, because it provides a direct link between developed and less-developed countries it can provide a key to unlock the potential for financial support for implementing the GBF and shed light on a nature-based solution for how Official Development Assistance (ODA) could be deployed. Such ODA could ensure the global protection of these charismatic and threatened species, while contributing to the financing of the GBF. Our work emphasises the economic value of marine megafauna ecosystem services provided “on the move” across jurisdictions and highlights the economic value of conserving marine megafauna, our global heritage.