The first Knowledge Roundtable on Innovative Financing for Marine Conservation was conducted on the 12th of October 2023 where various financial solutions and instruments were discussed. The need to compare these solutions with each other for deployment in Sri Lanka was identified. Stakeholders suggested drafting a matrix to better understand how different innovative financial solutions could be applied – their relevance and usage. This is not easy to do, though – each instrument is unique, making an apples-to-apples comparison complex. CSF researchers set out to 1) Compare the various innovative financial solutions and identify which might be the most desirable and feasible to implement; Visually represent this information on a matrix; and thereby 3) Provide a starting point for industry players, regulators, policymakers, and other interested parties to make meaningful improvements to financing marine conservation in Sri Lanka.

Based on the ‘UNDP and the Global Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) Workbook’, a screening criteria was developed where a subjective ranking was used to assign a score to each instrument to gauge the components: 1) Likelihood of success; 2) Impact on biodiversity; and 3) Financial impact. We prepared a slide deck explaining our methodology and initial results for discussion, and can be accessed here. A summary visual is presented above.

Do you think this sort of matrix is useful to help Sri Lankan policy and civil-society stakeholders assess the relevance and usefulness of each type of instrument? Do you agree with the scoring or do you have suggestions on how it could be better?

Let us know via this feedback form or write to Heshal Peiris (Project Associate – Conservation Finance) at [email protected]