Central American Markets for Biodiversity (CAMBio):
Mainstreaming biodiversity conservation and sustainable use within micro, small and medium-sized enterprise development and financingo
The project will support the mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use within small, micro- and medium-sized enterprise (SMME) development and financing in five Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua).
In doing so, it will generate biodiversity benefits by encouraging transformed productive and service sector practices and related investments that can positively impact biodiversity. It will work closely with, and help to bring together, three important service-provider networks, each of which will be associated with a specific project outcome.
First, it will work with the region’s financial sector network, namely the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and select members of its extensive network of financial intermediaries (FIs), to develop and extend new financial products that will generate substantial increased lending to biodiversity-friendly SMMEs (BF-SMMEs) for investments that create biodiversity benefits.
Regional Project - Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua
Initiated 2007 Ends 2014
Donation from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), or (FMAM) in Spanish: US$ 10.225 million
Co-financing funds from CABEI: US$ 17.750 million
Total Cost of the Project: US$ 27.975 million
Second, it will work with potential BF-SMMEs and in partnership with a range of national and international providers of business and technical services to ensure that SMME investments are made efficiently and in a manner that maximizes economic, social and biodiversity / environmental benefits. Finally, it will work with Governmental and inter-governmental institutions, including Ministries of Environment, relevant sectoral ministries (agriculture, industry, tourism, finance and commerce) and the Comision Centroamericana de Ambiente y Desarollo (CCAD), a regional coordinating structure, to promote an enabling environment that will encourage BF-SMME growth over the medium and long run.
GEF funding will support technical co-operation aimed at removing a variety of barriers – including those related to business organization and development, banking and an enabling environment – to mainstreaming in the above areas. It will also provide direct financial support in the form of partial guarantees and other loan enhancements. GEF funding will leverage substantial co-financing in the form of direct lending funds available under existing CABEI SMME credit lines that are currently supporting only minimal amounts of lending to biodiversity-friendly SMMEs (BF-SMMEs). It will also work in partnership with other funding sources, such as those being channeled through Rainforest Alliance, to support efforts to transform production and service sector (e.g., ecotourism) practices in ways that benefit biodiversity.
Central American Markets for Biodiversity (CAMBio): 
