Biodiversity loss is posing an existential threat to humanity. Averting the loss to improve biodiversity outcomes is deeply embedded in economic activities, and there is an urgent need to bridge the biodiversity finance gap, estimated at $700 billion annually. This need far exceeds public funding capacity, making private investment essential through different financial instruments (blended finance, nature credits, and debt-for-nature swaps). The physical risks of biodiversity loss become increasingly material (i.e., financial risk) for business and the economy, and pricing this risk is emerging in financial sectors such as insurance sector.
The effectiveness of these tools and instruments depends on robust, comparable, and scalable biodiversity metrics and standardized frameworks that are transparent, credible, and accountable to develop confidence in biodiversity market and financial sector.
Drawing on theoretical and empirical examples from diverse contexts, the session aims to foster cross-sector learning on what works, and what does not in developing biodiversity markets, and generating private finance to bridge the funding gaps.

We welcome contributions that focus on biodiversity finance and economics to address biodiversity measurement, market, and finance related topics in general. The specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
· How biodiversity metrics can be standardized for mainstream investment?
· Lessons from insurance in pricing biodiversity-related risks.
· Designing financial tools/instruments and their effectiveness and scalability to mobilize private finance while reducing corporate impacts.
· Lessons from biodiversity markets – key market determinants (demand- and supply-side factors), and policy innovations
· Integrating indigenous and local knowledge in biodiversity financing and financial products