The Executive Council of the Kunming Biodiversity Fund has approved nine biodiversity conservation projects worth roughly 4.5 million U.S. dollars for developing nations, Dong Baotong, vice minister of China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said Monday.

Dong made the remarks at a briefing of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. The projects fall under the first phase of its third funding round and will be implemented in Armenia, Bangladesh, Benin, Cameroon, Cuba, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Somalia and Vietnam, he said.

Launched in May 2024, the Kunming Biodiversity Fund is the first global biodiversity fund set up by a developing country to support conservation efforts in other developing nations, Dong said. China has contributed 400 million yuan (60 million dollars), and is calling on governments, businesses and civil society groups worldwide to contribute as well, he added.

Dong said the fund seeks out replicable, scalable conservation models and pools funding from multiple sources to help fill gaps in conservation financing. It has approved 31 projects across 45 developing countries and aims to support about 40 more in the second phase of its third funding round, focusing on ecosystem restoration, emergency protection for rare and endangered species, and other biodiversity conservation efforts, he said.

Calling the fund "an agile instrument," Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, thanked China for its leadership in establishing it, saying the fund aligns with the Global Biodiversity Framework and helps advance its 2030 targets.

Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said the nine new projects are part of an estimated 21 million dollars in funding to be disbursed by the end of 2026, providing "much-needed finance for many countries."

The Kunming Biodiversity Fund will remain committed to multilateralism, and operate openly and transparently. It also hopes to see more partners aboard to help turn these goals into reality, Dong said.