Kenya launches five-year project to mainstream biodiversity in economic planning

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) has launched the Systemic Learning and Mainstreaming of Biodiversity Targets for Innovative Transformation and Behavioural Change (SYMBIOTIC) project in Kenya aimed at strengthening the integration of biodiversity into economic planning, finance and investment.

The five-year project seeks to support the implementation of Kenya’s biodiversity commitments by bringing biodiversity considerations into national and sectoral planning, public finance, investment and private sector decision-making.

Speaking during the launch, GGGI Head of Kenya Office and Manager for Africa Strategy and Partnership, Nagnouma Kone said the project will help strengthen the connection between biodiversity and economic growth.

“When you think about biodiversity, you’re thinking about economic growth. When you think about biodiversity, you’re looking at a bioeconomy,” Kone said.

Kone said GGGI is also working with banks to improve understanding of the relationship between biodiversity and finance, noting that a three-day training with banks in Kenya will follow the launch.

GGGI Head of Kenya Office and Manager for Africa Strategy and Partnership, Nagnouma Kone

She said the link between biodiversity and finance is important because economic activities depend on financial institutions.

“You cannot talk about the economy if you do not connect with finance,” she said.

Kone said GGGI joined the SYMBIOTIC consortium after being approached by the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), which is leading the project.

She said GGGI considers sustainability and government ownership when deciding to engage in projects.

“For us, and especially for GGGI, we do not engage in projects if we don’t see sustainability,” Kone said.

SYMBIOTIC is a five-year, five-country project funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI). It is led by NABU and implemented by GGGI in Kenya and Ethiopia.

The project runs from February 2026 to January 2031 and covers Kenya, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan.

In Kenya, GGGI will work with the Government, particularly the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, national partners and the private sector.

Its work will focus on integrating biodiversity into national and sectoral planning, strengthening biodiversity considerations in public finance through fiscal instruments and natural capital accounting, and working with businesses and financial institutions to promote biodiversity-positive practices, financing and investment.

The project comes as Kenya implements several national frameworks related to biodiversity, natural capital and sustainable investment.

These include the updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), the National Bioeconomy Strategy 2026–2036, the National Plan for Advancing Environmental-Economic Accounting 2025–2028 and the Kenya Green Finance Taxonomy.

The launch and inception meeting brings together government institutions, financial and private sector actors, development partners, technical organisations and civil society stakeholders to build a common understanding of biodiversity mainstreaming and agree on practical areas for collaboration.

Kone said the project will go beyond working with the private sector, banks and exchanges, with its impact also expected to support the mainstreaming of biodiversity into Kenya’s Nature-Based Solutions and the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.

“The impacts of the project will be how do we mainstream this in Kenya’s Nature-Based Solutions, in Kenya’s NBSAP, the National Biodiversity Action Plan,” she said.

Kone said GGGI expects to deliver on the project’s objectives, noting that the government will hold the implementing partners accountable.

“We have to make sure that we deliver, because then the government will hold us into account,” she said.

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