Biodiversity for Life (B4Life)
The EU Biodiversity for Life (B4Life) flagship initiative was launched in 2015 to help the poorest countries protect ecosystems, combat wildlife crime and develop green economies. It takes the approach of emphasising the economic benefits of protecting biodiversity and ecosystems in the interest of sustaining livelihoods and reducing poverty.
EU B4Life is one of several flagship initiatives developed by DG International Partnerships as part of the Global Public Goods and Challenges (GPGC) thematic programme. Large, multidisciplinary development programmes, they were designed to tackle major global problems and maximise impacts through setting a clear objective and recognisable goals.
B4Life focuses on the strong linkages between ecosystems and livelihoods in view of contributing to poverty eradication. The initiative aims at contributing to halt biodiversity loss and deliver on the European Union's commitments by fully integrating biodiversity and ecosystem conservation with socio-economic development and poverty eradication through an innovative and cross-cutting approach.The initiative will gather all European Commission's biodiversity specific activities to create more coherence and a clear strategic framework.
B4Life operates in three priority areas:
- Good governance for a sustainable management of natural resources.
- Ecosystem conservation for food security and sustainable rural development.
- Ecosystem-based solutions towards a green economy.
In addition, it includes a specific window to address the wildlife crisis linked to increasing illegal trafficking which deserves special attention.