MADRID, Spain (CMC) — France has become a founding donor of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Natural Capital Lab that will help countries in Latin America and the Caribbean move forward with innovative projects to fight deforestation, invest in nature-based solutions to environmental problems.

The IDB said that France will contribute Euro 24 million (One Euro =US$1.29 cents) to the Natural Capital Lab and an agreement was signed on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 25) between France´s Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Brune Poirson, and IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno.

“By backing the Natural Capital Lab, France will help countries in Latin America and the Caribbean move forward with innovative projects to fight deforestation, invest in nature-based solutions to environmental problems, facilitate the transition to climate-smart agriculture, and preserve and restore marine and land biodiversity.

“Specifically, the Natural Capital Lab will incubate, accelerate, and scale solutions in the sustainable use and conservation of landscape and marine ecosystems, serving as a new space where the public and private sectors can work together,” the IDB said in a statement.

It said that it will also work to develop a set of knowledge products, cutting edge projects, and collaborations to help set the regional and international agenda on how to treat nature as an asset in the run‑up to the Biodiversity Conference of the Parties of 2020 and beyond.

“The announcement of France’s donation underscores the importance of the natural capital in the COP25 agenda and the need to develop new financing models and partnerships to tackle environmental risks and climate change,” the IDB statement added.