The 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UN CBD) marked several important milestones for global biodiversity governance. Among them was the adoption of the so-called Cali Fund, a decision reached during COP16’s resumption in Rome earlier in 2025 following last year’s negotiations in Cali, Colombia. 

Officially designated as the Cali Fund for the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits from the Use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources (DSI), this new mechanism is meant to set important new standards for financing biodiversity conservation and restoration. In that sense, companies that stand to gain income from DSI sources can now place contributions within an international monetary framework dedicated to redistributing such generated wealth for environmental protection. In this manner, a commitment to the goals of the Convention and its associated protocols can be demonstrated by relevant private entities.

To ease the participation in this endeavour, the Secretariat of the UN CBD developed the first dedicated guide for the Cali Fund. This output was the result of a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The document provides a succinct overview of the various structures, procedures and organs associated with the new financial body.

The full guide can be found here. For more on the Fund’s adoption and significance, one can access the dedicated article on the UN CBD’s website.