Funds Managed by BIOFUND

BIOFUND raises three separate types of funds, namely: Endowment, Pass-through funding, and Funds for direct management of projects.

• Endowment – are funds invested in long term, where the income from the capital can be mobilized, but without using the capital itself.
• Pass-through funding – are funds from third parties for specific projects, where BIOFUND is the mechanism for disbursement and financial control.
• Funds for direct management of projects – are for those few projects that are managed by BIOFUND itself.

The effort to raise investment funds began even before the formal creation of BIOFUND, in the days of the Committee of Founders. But only after the structuring of the Foundation was it possible to set up the conditions for negotiations with the partners. This required from BIOFUND the establishment of procedural routines, harmonised with the standards set by the regulations of the main partners.

The positive assessment of the consolidation of BIOFUND, in 2014, was fundamental in the decisions of various donors to contribute to the constitution of our endowment which, at the end of 2023, had reached 56.3 million USD. This sum includes, in addition to the income earned that makes up about 20% of the value (from which 11% was already used), the contributions from German Cooperation via KfW (47%), World Bank/GEF (27%), AFD (4%) and Conservation International/Global Conservation Trust (2%).

With the income resulting from the application of part of this Endowment, BIOFUND has financed five projects, namely: Abelha (2016-2021), ASA (since 2019-permanent), Pós Abelha (since 2021-permament) CI/APAIPS (since 2019-permanent), IDAI (2019-2023) and BIO-Emergency Fund (only between 2020 and 2021), in addition to covering some operational costs of the Foundation.

With the growing reputation of BIOFUND as an independent and well managed body, the institution has also been successful in raising pass-through funds, that is, funds from other donors that are then on-granted and managed by BIOFUND.

To December 2022, about US$ 90 million in pass-through funding has been raised, of which BIOFUND has already channelled around US$ 21.25 million. Together with our endowment funding, BIOFUND has to date distributed almost US$ 25M million to Conservation Areas in Mozambique.

The portfolio of the direct management of projects is over USD 9.4 million, raised for the management of the following programs:

• Innovative Financing (with emphasis on the Biodiversity Offsets Program);
• Mozambique Conservation Leadership Program;
• BAF (Annual Marine Biodiversity Conference); and
• Ranger’s Support Fund.