Conservationists alarmed by drastic cuts to key UK fund for global nature protection

Conservation groups warn slashing Darwin Initiative will put species and habitats in jeopardy, and set back efforts to halt decline in nature

One of the UK’s longest-standing funds for global nature protection is being drastically cut back, the Guardian has learned.

At least 89 countries will lose eligibility for funding for biodiversity projects under the Darwin Initiative , in a round of cuts that conservationists warned would put species and habitats in jeopardy, and set back global efforts to halt the precipitous decline in nature.

The Guardian understands that the regions to be dropped include most of Africa, central Asia and parts of Latin America. Countries such as Argentina, Iran, Sudan, Chad, Mali and Angola would lose out. Armenia, which is hosting the next conference under the UN convention on biodiversity this October, will also be excluded.

“At a time when governments have committed to CBD agreements to scale international biodiversity finance to $30 billion a year by 2030, continued cuts and restrictions risk undermining trust that those promises will actually be delivered,” said Andrew Terry, ZSL’s Director of Conservation and Policy. “For decades, the Darwin Initiative has been one of the UK’s most important programmes for supporting wildlife, improving livelihoods and tackling climate change in some of the regions that need support most. But reductions to the UK’s international aid budget and the removal of eligibility for 89 countries mean locally led organisations are losing vital backing at a time when communities and ecosystems are already under growing pressure. Projects funded by the Darwin Initiative are the frontline of efforts to protect communities from climate and ecosystem breakdown, and this is exactly the moment they should be strengthened, not scaled back.”

Catherine Weller, the director of policy at the conservation group Fauna & Flora, said: “We were shocked to see the extent of the geographies cast out of the Darwin Initiative this year – some good projects will now not be in contention. People living close to nature are its greatest champions, and Darwin is the type of funding they need.”

The Darwin Initiative was begun in 1992, announced by the Conservative prime minister John Major at the landmark Rio earth summit of that year , which produced the UN framework convention on climate change, the convention on biological diversity and the convention to combat desertification. Some of the initiative’s most high-profile projects have included reducing peatland tropical forest fires in Indonesia and helping to set up Bhutan’s first and only national botanical garden.

Some of the 89 countries to be excluded from eligibility are rapidly emerging economies or middle-income countries, whose status has changed markedly since 1992. These include China, India, Mexico and Turkey. Jenny Chapman, the international development minister, said earlier this year the UK would stop supporting G20 countries with international aid.