Editor's note: "Shared by Nature" invites experts and scholars from around the world to share their knowledge of major issues in nature, such as climate change, biodiversity conservation and environmental protection. Moazzam Malik is the managing director for global delivery at World Resources Institute. He shares his thoughts on how to inspire more commitments to biodiversity finance.

The second part of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) is taking place in Montreal, Canada, between December 7 and 19. It follows the first phase held last year in Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, with the continued theme of "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth."

Biodiversity finance, as a key issue for biodiversity conservation, is expected to be addressed at COP15. "We are not putting enough money into the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, endangering the success of the Global Biodiversity Framework, before it is even agreed," according to the United Nations Environment Programme. 

"On the basis of current estimates of resources, we anticipate that the funding gap for biodiversity conservation is somewhere between $600 and $800 billion a year, which is a huge funding gap," said Moazzam Malik, managing director for global delivery at World Resources Institute.

"While resources are flowing increasingly into climate change, funding and investment issues are even more severe on the biodiversity protection side," he said.

To address the finance problem, action is needed not only from governments but also from the private sector. 

Major emerging countries and especially developed countries can make commitments to put finances in biodiversity conservation, said Malik, adding that biodiversity conservation need to be more strongly built into multilateral banks and institutions.

(Cover image designed by CGTN's Yu Peng; video edited by CGTN's Gao Yuxin and Xu Wen)

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