22 May marks the International Day for Biological Diversity, a UN-designated day that highlights the urgent need to preserve and restore biodiversity. The WWF Living Planet Report (2024) documents a 73% average decline in monitored wildlife populations since 1970. As such negative trends in natural ecosystems will likely hinder progress towards 80% of the assessed targets of 8 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), tackling biodiversity loss goes hand in hand with advancing climate resilience, food security, and human well-being. Not only is biodiversity loss a pressing issue for our environment, but it also presents a key business risk, since biodiversity underpins an estimated $150 trillion in ecosystem services worldwide.
When it comes to conserving and restoring biodiversity while building climate resilience, nature itself offers a blueprint. Over billions of years, ecosystems have evolved efficient, adaptive, and regenerative solutions to thrive within planetary boundaries. By learning from and aligning with these natural systems, we can develop nature-inspired practices and technologies that mitigate climate change, enhance adaptation, and directly contribute to biodiversity conservation. This article explores how nature-based solutions (NbS), including ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), and biomimicry are being applied to address climate and biodiversity challenges, and why financial innovation is just as critical as technical innovation to scale these solutions.
Types of Nature-Inspired Practices
Nature-based Solutions (NbS)
Nature-based solutions (NbS) are ‘actions aimed at protecting, conserving, restoring, and sustainably managing natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience and biodiversity benefits’. As stated, one of the co-benefits of NbS is increased biodiversity, for example, from habitat restoration as part of implementing a solution. NbS are usually landscape‑ or city‑scale interventions—such as mangrove belts, protected areas, watershed restoration, or urban green infrastructure—typically led by governments, development banks, or municipalities.
Among different types of NbS, Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) refers to ‘a strategy for adapting to climate change that harnesses nature-based solutions and ecosystem services’. While NbS can address both mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, EbA is exclusively adaptation-oriented. One example is an adaptation to flooding by harnessing the protective and productive functions of agroforestry landscapes. Cartagena, a coastal city in Colombia, is prone to regular flooding, and the frequency and intensity of flooding are expected to increase in the future due to rainfall and sea level rise. To overcome this challenge, two EbA measures were implemented: 1) the restoration and maintenance of forests close to natural streams and rivers in the urban area and 2) the conservation of mangroves near the city, which played a vital role in flood control and preserving Cartagena’s old city centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
How are NbS projects funded?
Despite the proven efficacy of NbS in enhancing biodiversity and climate resilience, their adoption is often hindered by financial barriers, as evidenced by the fact that harmful practices received 30 times more funding than NbS in 2022. Some reasons for the financial challenges include the lack of funding, significant implementation costs, and longer timeframes for NbS’s outcomes and returns compared to conventional investments. However, global investments in NbS need to triple by 2030 and increase fourfold by 2050 in order to meet biodiversity targets, making the case for urgent and transformative financial innovation.
The public sector remains a primary funder of NbS, with public finance flows being eight times larger than private counterparts. The aforementioned EbA project in Cartagena, too, was implemented by GIZ and IUCN, as well as supported by the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), as part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). While public capital helped establish these EbA measures in Cartagena, the project aims to establish a finance mechanism to continue and expand EbA measures in the long run, mostly through the collection of a municipal event fee and a rainwater drainage levy for businesses and private urban developers.
Biomimicry
Popularised by biologist Janine Benyus, biomimicry is a practice that emulates or takes inspiration from designs and systems found in nature to solve human problems. In contrast to NbS, biomimetic solutions are more prominent in the commercial sector. Usually in the form of discrete technologies (e.g. coatings, turbines, building systems, materials), biomimicry tends to operate at a product or project level, often in high‑income countries.
One of the common fields in which biomimicry is implemented is the built environment, especially in urban contexts. As well as the development of circular construction materials and energy-efficient systems that help mitigate or adapt to climate change, some biomimetic practices can also benefit biodiversity directly. One such example is BioHaven® Floating Islands, developed by Floating Island International. Taking inspiration from wetland ecosystems, this floating garden serves as a natural water filtration system by concentrating wetland plants and microbes on a fibrous matrix made of recycled material. When placed in a pond, the BioHaven Floating Islands not only improve water quality but also sequester carbon and create micro-habitats, contributing to urban biodiversity and climate mitigation.
In recent years, there has also been a rise in biomimetic agricultural practices, such as agroforestry systems that mimic natural forest layers to enhance biodiversity and soil health. The Land Institute has developed Natural Systems Agriculture inspired by prairie ecosystems. Perennial polycultures, with various plants mimicking the diversity of natural systems, are believed to address common problems in conventional agriculture including pests and soil erosion, as well as contribute to biodiversity both above- and belowground. The Land Institute is also developing Kernza®, a perennial grain with environmental benefits for soil and water aligned with the Natural Systems Agriculture principles.
How are biomimicry projects funded?
As many of the biomimicry projects are implemented by startups, their common financial instruments are grants and R&D programmes, specialised accelerators and thematic funds, early‑stage equity, and conventional project finance. However, some biomimetic innovations require years of research and development to commercialise, leaving innovative ideas and technologies stuck in the lab.
New financial models are emerging to fill this gap. Anima, a Paris-based biomimicry venture studio, works with startups, researchers, and corporations to build climate-positive ventures. They do this by providing pre-seed funding, hands-on support, and expertise in biomimicry. Once a venture is ready to raise VC funding, Anima takes a 25% equity share. While still in its early stages, this ‘venture studio’ model is an interesting example of private patient capital, a form of investment that prioritises impact alongside financial returns—giving ambitious biomimicry projects a chance to reach sufficient technology and commercial readiness levels.
Conclusion
Whether through EbA interventions that harness the flood-buffering capacity of mangroves and forests, or biomimetic technologies that translate nature’s engineering into commercial products, the common thread is clear: working with natural systems, rather than against them, makes possible more resilient, regenerative outcomes for both communities and the environment.
Yet technical innovation alone is not enough. As this article has shown, some of the most significant barriers to scaling nature-inspired solutions are financial, making innovations in funding and financing just as critical as innovation in design. Bridging this gap, whether through blended finance, payments for ecosystem services, or patient capital, is what will determine whether promising solutions stay at a small scale or reach the communities and ecosystems that need them most.
Through innovative ideas and market-driven strategies, financial innovation is key to unlocking the full potential of nature-inspired solutions and ensuring a future with thriving biodiversity and climate resilience.
