The Cali Fund, established at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in 2024, aims to raise billions of dollars for nature conservation. However, it has only raised $7,085 so far, indicating a weak start for this fund, which was expected to serve as an innovative model for financing.
Performance of the Cali Fund
The Cali Fund was established at the COP16 conference in Cali, Colombia, at the end of 2024 and began its operations in February 2025. The fund proposes that companies active in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, biotechnology, and animal and plant breeding industries contribute one percent of their annual profits or 0.1 percent of their turnover. The designers of this fund had anticipated that this scheme could raise one billion dollars annually, but currently, only three companies have contributed: British companies TierraViva AI ($1,000) and Prozomix ($5,000), and Belgian company E-BIOM ($1,085).
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Challenges and Barriers of the Fund
Digital sequence information (DSI) obtained from genetic resources such as plants, animals, and microorganisms is freely available in digital databases. Companies use this information to create economic value, but the Cali Fund is designed to ensure that those who exploit this information must contribute to biodiversity conservation and support local communities that maintain these resources. Despite the lack of legal obligation, the fund invites countries to adopt measures to encourage companies to contribute.
The main problem is that the fund's mechanism heavily relies on incentives and voluntary contributions. According to Juliette Landry from the sustainable development think tank IDDRI, "As long as these incentives are not strong and consistent enough, a company may ask why it should pay when its competitors do not." Paki Das from the NGO Plant-for-the-Planet also pointed out that no country currently has a law to encourage contributions to the fund.
Companies are also seeking assurances regarding how these resources will be used. Vishesh Apal, one of the managers at WWF-India, stated that companies want to ensure that the fund's international certificates for documenting payments are nationally accepted to avoid double payments.
Guilherme Sintra, director of innovation policy at the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, emphasized that "the level of participation in the Cali Fund raises ongoing questions about the design and implementation of this mechanism, rather than indicating a lack of commitment to biodiversity." Collecting this small amount cannot alone determine the success or failure of the mechanism, and in the coming years, the main question will be whether governments can create suitable conditions for companies to contribute to this mechanism.
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