About Us

The World Bank's Environmental Strategy sets out three principle objectives for how its programs and projects will affect environmental conditions. These objectives are to improve the quality of life, improve the quality of growth, and protect the quality of the regional and global commons. The Bank's investments in biodiversity protection contribute to meeting these objectives by protecting the biological resources and systems that underpin well-being and livelihood on local, national, regional, and global scales. Biodiversity protection reinforces several specific objectives of the Environmental Strategy:

• Enhancing livelihood by protecting the long-term productivity and resilience of natural resources and ecosystems;
  
  
• Improving the policy, regulatory, and institutional frameworks for sustainable environmental management;
  
  
• Supporting environmentally and socially sustainable private sector development; and
  
  
• Focusing on the positive linkages between poverty reduction and environmental protection.
  
  

The Bank's biodiversity investments support these objectives by improving the management capacity of protected areas, building the capacity of communities to manage biodiversity resources, and working with governments to design and implement policies that support effective management on local, national, and regional levels.