Biodiversity is critical to maintainingthe integrity of ecosystems and the ecological processesthat support species and human well-being. The world isfacing an unprecedented rate of species extinction: one ineight bird species, one in four mammals, and one in threeamphibians are threatened. Species can recover withconcerted conservation. As a charismatic endangered species,tigers have become a powerful symbol of biodiversity lossglobally, as their numbers have dropped from 100,000 at theturn of the 20th century to an estimated 3,000-3,500 tigersin the wild today. The need to protect tigers has taken ongreat urgency, and international efforts are attempting topull them back from the edge of extinction. From November 21to 24, 2010, the Russian Federation hosted leaders from 13tiger range countries at a conference in St. Petersburg. Thegoal was inter alia to eliminate illegal trade in tigerparts while protecting tiger habitats and to double thetiger population by 2022. The World Bank has provided strongleadership and support for the initiative. Biodiversityinterventions can have potentially large co benefits:biodiversity conservation, climate change stabilization,food and water security, and poverty reduction. The WorldBank has been the largest financier for biodiversity, withcommitments of more than $2 billion over the last twodecades and substantial leveraging of co financing. However,the number of new projects approved that containbiodiversity activities has dropped considerably since themid-2000s. At present, the Bank is according importance tobiodiversity by taking a leading role in strategicpartnerships, such as the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI), theCritical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF), and the SaveOur Species (SOS) program. By prioritizing such initiatives,the Bank aims to bring crucial attention and funding toecosystem and biodiversity conservation. It is also crucialat the same time to integrate conservation in developmentprojects in sectors such as infrastructure and ruraldevelopment, which can have negative effects on biodiversitywithout adequate mitigating actions. This review has shownthat as important as these targeted biodiversity efforts isthe need for the Bank, countries, and partners to strengthenefforts to integrate biodiversity conservation into projectsin sectors where they can have negative biodiversity impactswithout mitigating actions, such as rural transport,watershed management, or integrated rural development.
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