Women have a fundamental role in biodiversity conservation in Costa Rica and globally. However, gender-based barriers limit their access to biodiversity-related financial mechanisms, such as payments for environmental services and credit for sustainable agriculture and bio-businesses.

In 2020, the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica (MINAE) and the Biodiversity Finance Imitative (BIOFIN) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched the umbrella programme +Women +Nature to promote gender equality in biodiversity. Central to this initiative are three mechanisms to increase women’s access to finance, including two credit lines and one payment for environmental services scheme.

These mechanisms have strengthened women’s agency in conservation through USD 6,979,050 in credit lines and 530 payment for environmental services contracts, contributing to biodiversity conservation and inclusive economic development in Costa Rica.

In the context of accelerating global climate change, public awareness and participation in climate action across China remains limited. To address this, Friends of Nature launched the “Citizen Climate Action – Linglong Program” in 2021, with support from the Energy Foundation, the Beijing Xianfeng Changtian Foundation, and Partnerships for community Development. The program aims to identify and support individuals who already have a certain professional foundation but are at an early stage of engaging with climate issues. Through structured knowledge-building, mentorship, community support, and small grants, Linglong Program helps fellows design and implement citizen-led climate actions. By cultivating climate leaders and long-term change makers, the program establishes replicable and scalable models of climate action that inspire broader public engagement.

This solution is part of Sparśa, a Nepali non-profit initiative producing compostable menstrual pads made from locally processed banana fiber.

It describes the first phase of the production chain, detailing how banana pseudostems are sourced from farmers and processed at a factory near the plantations. The solution includes replicable CAD-supported designs for semi-automatic fiber extraction and pseudostem-cutting machines, enabling local manufacturing and adaptation. It also outlines sustainable fiber-drying methods and a circular system that converts the remaining biomass into organic compost fertilizer, which is returned to farmers. The extracted fiber is then turned into absorbent paper sheets used as the core of Sparśa menstrual pads. Overall, the solution strengthens circular economy practices, creates rural employment, empowers women, supports environmentally responsible menstrual hygiene options in Nepal, and offers a model that can be replicated in other banana-growing regions worldwide.

In Panama’s western highlands, small coffee farmers face growing pressures from pests, plant diseases and climate change. Heavy reliance on chemical pesticides has harmed biodiversity, degraded soils and threatened pollinators. This solution shows how endophytic fungi, microorganisms that live naturally inside plants, can serve as effective biological pest control adapted to local conditions. Fungal strains were identified and transformed into low-cost formulations that were tested on coffee farms, where they significantly reduced the need for chemical inputs. The initiative brings together scientists, government institutions and local communities, with a strong focus on training and empowering women farmers. By addressing biodiversity loss, land degradation and gaps in technical capacity, the project strengthens sustainable livelihoods and climate resilience. Farmers benefit through higher yields, lower costs and healthier ecosystems, creating a scalable model for sustainable coffee production in Panama and beyond.

Nosy Hara National Park is part of Madagascar’s network of protected areas. A genetic reservoir of marine biodiversity, it is a sustainable fishing site par excellence, for the fishing community living around the park. Mangrove crabs, octopus and reef fish are the most commonly caught species. The Park is renowned for the production of octopus, fish for local, regional and even national consumption.

Overfishing in accessible areas by small-scale fishermen, the failure of nomadic fishermen to comply with fishing closures, and the lack of park staff for surveillance are among the daily challenges faced by park managers.

Co-management through the effective involvement of the local community in the preservation of the park is an approach adopted, particularly by the women’s community of the village of Ankingameloka, who actively participate in the co-monitoring of mangroves, the restoration of the ecosystem and the monitoring of fishermen’s daily catches.

A shea value chain created around a protected areas landscape in Ghana led to greater finance flowing into community and conservation. Mole National Park is a biodiverse ecosystem, and Ghana’s largest protected area. Communities surrounding the Park benefit from its natural resources, but were using them unsustainably. In 2008, A Rocha Ghana and IUCN Netherlands Committee implemented a Community Resource Management Area (CREMA), a governance and management framework created by the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, to empower local communities for natural resource management. Inhabitants designed a shared plan for the landscape that simultaneously addresses conservation and socio-economic wellbeing, including building a shea value chain.  Implementing organisations engaged with the Savannah Food Company to become a business partner with the CREMAs, particularly women’s groups who collect shea nuts, and help create a fund to support conservation action in the community.

This solution addresses poverty reduction in Zanzibar for its coastal communities through a more sustainable management of their natural resources, additional income, and consequently, better quality of life. The approach of implementing ecological aqua farming of bath sponges with women in coastal communites promotes healthy economic growth, reduces environmental pressure and threats to marine life and othernatural wildlife, improves public health and strenghtens the economic and social status of women.

The “Building a Climate Change Resilient City through Empowering Women” project funded within the context of the Town Twinning Action Between Turkey and the EU Grant Scheme was implemented by Çankaya Municipality with the technical support of the Nature Conservation Centre (DKM) and in partnership with Frankfurt Municipality and the Association of Women Mukhtars. The overall goal of the project was to combat climate change in urban areas through training and empowering women to become active pioneers in climate-related issues and projects. The project focused on creating an enabling environment where women are effectively integrated into local decision-making processes and duly considered in climate change policies.

Mexican marine ecosystems are not exempt from overexploitation. Approximately 17% of the Mexican fisheries are overexploited,  70% are at the maximum sustainable yield, and only 13% are underexploited. With 41% of the Mexican population living in coastal municipalities and 11,000 coastal communities with less than 15,000 habitants mainly relying on the marine resources and ecosystems, sustainable fisheries are crucial to ensuring employment, income, and food security for many people.  

COBI has developed four building blocks to reverse the degradation of the marine environment: 1) capacity building of leaders and fishing organizations, 2) sustainable fishing, 3) marine reserves, and 4) support to public policies. For each, COBI develops demonstrative models that can be adopted by fishing organizations and other stakeholders in Mexico and elsewhere.

The transversal elements of our work are collective action, citizen science, and gender equality. 

La buena gobernanza depende de una gestión eficaz en el aprovechamiento de los recursos a través de los diferentes usos de las plantas. El uso ceremonial, ritual o medicinal es parte del proceso de toma de decisiones en el manejo del territorio y de los ecosistemas en la Reserva de la Biósfera Selva El Ocote. Aquí, las mujeres han tenido un rol fundamental en el rescate y transmisión de los saberes de la herbolaria, uno de los principales recursos terapéuticos en el medio rural. Asimismo, se ha promovido la participación e intercambio de experiencias entre hombres, mujeres, jóvenes y adultos mayores, reconstruyendo y rescatando el conocimiento tradicional medicinal e histórico de las propias comunidades y revalorizando los servicios ambientales.

Se ha logrado replicar este conocimiento, lo que ha redundado en un gran apoyo social y económico, especialmente en este tiempo tan difícil que nos toca vivir, el de la pandemia del COVID-19.

Mama Fatuma, the hard working middle aged woman living in Kibuyuni Village of Kwale County embodies the success of seaweed farming on the Kenyan coast. In a village where the predominant economic activity of fishing is a preserve of the men, Mama Fatuma encouraged fellow women to embark on seaweed farming as an alternative economic activity to wean them off over-reliance on their men folk and to enable them contribute to the family income. Following research trials and support from various sectors, seaweed farming is now earning Kibuyuni Village over USD 11,000 from the initial USD 2,000 in 2012 and beginning to thrive in various places along the south coast of Kenya and improving livelihoods through provision of additional income for families to pay school fees, meet medical costs and diversify the economy. It has also generated interest in mariculture and marine science generally among the youth in coastal Kenya.

The Centre for Environmental Justice and Development (CEJAD)aims to combat plastic and waste pollution by promoting sustainable solid management through public education on impacts of plastics to the environment and demonstration of BATs/BEPs such as source separation of waste, reuse, recycling and recovery as well value chain efficiency.

The project seeks to conduct the following activities:

• Equipping the women artisans with machinery, tools, and equipment for making sculptures and items out of plastic waste.
• Training women artisans on product development and packaging.
• Establishing a pilot waste segregation at source and management system for recovery, reuse, and recycle of plastic and other waste.
• Training women artisans on marketing and how to maintain market linkages.
• Undertaking a market research for their products.