The Global Environment Facility is a financial mechanism for the 5 major international environmental conventions: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD), the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
The GEF primarily provides financing to developing governments to help them meet their obligations under these conventions. Public funds committed by donor governments, and replenished every 4 years (e.g. GEF 6, GEF 7, GEF 8), is the basis for this financing. As a GEF Project Agency since 2013, the WWF GEF Agency both (1) supports and influences GEF policies, guidelines, and operations, and (2) helps governments access GEF funds for environmental projects.
As a network, WWF is able to support government in designing and executing GEF projects. It is an opportunity to achieve shared conservation goals on the ground.
Global Environment Facility
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is the largest public financing institution for the environment. Established in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit, the main function of the GEF is to serve as a financial mechanism for key multilateral environmental agreements, namely the UNFCCC, UNCCD, and the CBD. As a financial mechanism, the role of the GEF is to provide funding that assists developing countries meet their obligations under the respective conventions, that in turn, enable the conventions to make progress on their global goals and targets (e.g., the CBD’s Aichi Targets or Sustainable Development Goals) and overall mission.
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World Wildlife Fund
WWF and the GEF have a rich history of partnership and mutual support. A new milestone in this partnership was reached in November 2013, when the GEF Council welcomed WWF as a GEF Project Agency. This status gives WWF the ability to work directly with the GEF’s member countries to design and implement GEF programs and projects on their behalf, with full accreditation based on our policies, rules, and procedures. WWF-US serves as the GEF agency within the international WWF Network.
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