This indicator measures aid contributions via the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), a principal body of the OECD which deals with issues related to co-operation with developing countries. The DAC is an international forum of 24 members: 23 donor governments and the European Commission. The DAC collects aid data from its members, and also from other donors (non-DAC countries and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, regional development banks, UN agencies). Annual aid reporting takes place using the Creditor Reporting System (CRS), and donors are requested to indicate for each activity whether or not it targets one or more of the three Rio Conventions. This indicator is only concerned with data collected under the ‘Rio marker’ for ‘biodiversity’. For an activity to be labelled with this ‘Rio marker’ it must promote one of the three objectives of the CBD: the conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components, or fair and equitable sharing of the benefits of the utilisation of genetic resources. When assigning the ‘Rio markers’ donors use the scoring system: 0 = Not targeted, 1 = Significant objective, 2 = Principal objective. Donors are also asked to report on the sectoral breakdown of activities.

The DAC has collected ‘Rio marker’ data from 1998 onwards: data for years 1998-2006 were obtained on a trial basis, and reporting became mandatory starting with 2007 flows. The data included some gaps, inconsistencies and partial reporting, but the coverage improved regularly. For 2008 data, only Luxembourg, Norway and the United States did not report on the biodiversity marker.

The ODA indicator can be used to follow biodiversity aid flows from the donor to the recipient. In terms of biodiversity aid contributions the indicator can be disaggregated for the 22 DAC member countries and 15 multilateral organisations. Recipient data however is not limited to DAC members and can be disaggregated for regions and nations.

The ODA indicator data can also be disaggregated to differentiate between aid targeting the CBD as principal and significant objectives and to look at the break down of aid activities between sectors (i.e. forestry, agriculture, etc).

An increase in biodiversity related aid means an increased transfer of financial resources to developing countries for the effective implementation of their commitments under the Convention.

A decline in biodiversity related aid means that developing countries are receiving less support for the implementation of CBD commitments. This situation is likely to result in negative impacts on biodiversity as developing countries have less financial resources available to them.

Note however that marker data do not allow exact quantification of aid allocation or spending on biodiversity. They give an indication (best estimate) of biodiversity aid flows and describe the extent to which donors address the objectives of the CBD in their aid programme.

‘The current indicator shows biodiversity-related aid to be of the order of USD 3 billion per year which represents 2-3% of total ODA ($3.36 billion in 2008, representing 2.5% of total ODA that year). Japan is the greatest donor, contributing 40.1% ($5.38 billion) of the total biodiversity related aid for 2005 to 2008. European institutions and the Netherlands are the second and third highest donors respectively, contributing 12.4% and 9.21% of the global total for 2005-2007. China was the greatest recipient of biodiversity related aid in 2005 to 2007 receiving 20.4% of the global total for this timeframe. India also received a large proportion, 17.3% of the global total. Four of the five highest recipient countries for 2005 to 2007 are located in Asia.’

The ODA indicator provides a global picture of biodiversity related international aid. National use of the indicator is limited to the 24 DAC members which submit aid data through the annual Creditor Reporting System (CRS). The member countries include most European countries, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United States (Korea also joined the DAC early 2010, but its data will be available only later in the year).

For information about producing regional and national ODA indicators contact Anna Chenery at UNEP-WCMC (anna.chenery@unep-wcmc.org).

Rio marker data will be collected annually via the CRS. Indicator graphs and storylines will be re-generated as new data becomes available through the OECD Creditor Reporting System database.