Foundational Issues in Biodiversity Finance

As financial instruments and metrics are increasingly leveraged to govern biodiversity, urgent questions arise regarding their legitimacy, efficacy, and justice. This workshop aims to bring together researchers from philosophy, finance, economics, law, and environmental governance to discuss the emerging field of biodiversity finance. We are particularly interested in questions such as: How can biodiversity impacts be measured and incorporated into financial decision-making? What role should banks, investors, and public institutions play in biodiversity conservation? What governance structures are needed to ensure effective biodiversity finance? And how to ensure a just biodiversity finance, for both human and non-human communities involved?

We are delighted to welcome as keynote speakers: dr. Helen Kopnina (Northumbria University) and dr. Helen Toxopeus (Utrecht University).

Key Themes

We welcome submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Normative Foundations: Fairness and justice for local human and non-human communities.
• Technical Challenges: The challenges and limitations of using financial metrics to represent ecological value in biodiversity finance.
• Governance: The role of institutional frameworks in managing financialized biodiversity.
• Accountability: Responsibility in biodiversity-finance decision-making and the role of stakeholders.

Abstract submission Guidelines

• The submission deadline is 1st May, 2026 at 23:59h CET
• All papers and abstracts should be submitted using this form.
• Your abstract should be no more than 500 words in length.
• Abstracts must be suitable for blind review, i.e., they must not contain any information that identifies the author or their institutional affiliation. 
• Only one submission per person is allowed

The workshop will take place in the historic city of Groningen. While there is no registration fee, participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email: [email protected]