OUR REGION is facing a critical decline in biodiversity, exacerbated by climate change impacts.

Latin America and the Caribbean are experiencing the steepest regional decline in average species abundance on Earth; currently estimated at 94 per cent. Freshwater species populations are seeing an 83 per cent overall global decline. Behind those numbers is a financing crisis, but it is not the one most people assume.

The conversation around conservation finance tends to begin and end with the funding gap. The Inter-American Development Bank estimates that gap at between USD 600 and USD 800 billion per year - in our region alone, defined as the difference between current conservation spending and what is needed to halt biodiversity loss and meet global targets like 30x30. That figure is staggering, and it matters. But the dollar amount is only part of the story.