9:00 AM CDTProtecting and restoring nature is one of the defining economic and environmental challenges of our time. With more than half the world’s GDP moderately or highly dependent on nature and biodiversity, the urgency to safeguard our planet’s health is clear.
In fall 2025, the Paulson Institute released an interim update to our landmark 2020 Financing Nature report, revealing a troubling reality: The global biodiversity financing gap has grown from $711 billion in 2020 to $942 billion annually today.
At the same time, biodiversity loss is accelerating. Nearly half the world’s species are in decline, while ecosystems that underpin food systems, water security, supply chains, and economic resilience continue to degrade.
In the last five years, awareness around biodiversity loss and the importance of protecting nature has grown. Businesses, governments, and financial institutions increasingly recognize that biodiversity is not simply an environmental issue—it is an economic one.
The challenge is not awareness.
Closing the biodiversity gap will require political leadership, long-term investment, stronger policy frameworks, and new approaches to mobilizing capital at scale.
The stakes are extraordinarily high. On World Biodiversity Day, the Paulson Institute convened global experts to discuss what must happen next: where progress is emerging, where critical gaps remain, and which financial and policy models show the greatest promise for protecting nature.
Agenda
Opening Remarks | Deborah Lehr
Overview of the 2025 Financing Nature Interim Report | Li Zhu
Panel discussion, moderated by Rose Niu with Professor Geoffrey Heal and Dr. Martin Schaefer
Deborah Lehr
Vice Chairman and Executive Director, Paulson Institute
Deborah Lehr is the Vice Chairman and Executive Director of the Paulson Institute. In that capacity, she advises the Chairman on US–China relations as well as oversees the development and implementation of Paulson Institute programs and initiatives. In addition, Ms. Lehr manages the Green Finance Center for the Paulson Institute. Ms. Lehr has served in the public, private and not for profit sectors focused on China, the Middle East and emerging markets. She advised Mr. Paulson when he was the CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs and helped then-Treasury Secretary Paulson to create and launch the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue. In addition, she served as Senior Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch and was a Senior Managing Director at the New York Stock Exchange. Ms. Lehr has built several successful consulting businesses, including as a partner at Mayer Brown, a top-10 law firm, as President of Stonebridge China and then with her own firm, Basilinna. Basilinna is focused on China and the Middle East. Ms. Lehr also served in the U.S. Government in the Executive Office of the President as a Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for China, where she was a lead negotiator for China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, for two intellectual property rights negotiations and on the team for the 1992 Market Access Agreement. Also, Ms. Lehr was one of the youngest Directors of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council. Previous to that, she was involved in export control and trade policy issues at the Department of Commerce. As the Founder and Chairman of the Antiquities Coalition, she works with governments around the world to fight against the illicit trade in antiquities. She serves on the International Advisory Board of the London School of Economics, the World Monuments Fund Board and the Middle East Institute Board. Ms. Lehr is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. UNESCO listed Ms. Lehr on its inaugural list of accomplished global women. She also received the prestigious Hadrian Award from the World Monument Fund for her work in fighting the illicit trade in antiquities. Ms. Lehr has lived and studied around the world, including China, England, France, and Germany. Her writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Foreign Affairs, South China Morning Post, U.S. News and World Report, Caixin Magazine, and Xinhua.net, among others.
Li Zhu
Director of Conservation, Paulson Institute
As a Director of the Conservation Program, Li Zhu supports the overall management and communications of the program. In addition, Li leads the Paulson Institute’s work to develop and implement initiatives that support China’s efforts to better manage its environmental performance in its overseas investment and international trade of key commodities. Prior to joining the Paulson Institute, Li Zhu was a Senior Program Officer at the World Wildlife Fund. In this capacity, he developed research on China’s Going Global strategy and the associated environmental impact, managed a variety of projects that ranged from sustainable supply chain of whitefish to Gold Standard based clean cookstoves in the heart of the panda habitat, and contributed to the organization’s signature corporate partnerships with Coca-Cola, Apple, and Disney. He also worked for the Nature Conservancy’s China Program as its Communications Director, where he led its overall communications strategy and oversaw the implementation of its diverse communications and marketing efforts, including the high profile event series ‘Natural China’ in partnership with the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, State Forestry Administration, and the State Information Office. Li Zhu graduated from the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and also received an MPhil degree from the University of Cambridge.
Rose Niu
Chief Conservation Officer, Paulson Institute
Rose Niu is Chief Conservation Officer at the Paulson Institute, where she manages the planning and execution of initiatives to protect globally significant biodiversity and ecosystems and to promote sustainable management of natural resources, particularly in China. Before joining the Institute, Niu was Managing Director of China Programs at World Wildlife Fund-US, where she coordinated all China-related work for the organization. Prior to this position, she founded the China program at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and oversaw its strategies and operations. She also served as Chief Representative and Country Program Director in China and represented TNC in its partnership with the Government of China. Niu later served as TNC’s Deputy Managing Director of the North Asia Region in the U.S. In 2003, Businessweek named Niu one of the Stars of Asia (25 Leaders at the forefront of change.) After earning a B.Sc in Veterinary Science, Niu worked as a Quarantine Officer in Kunming Quarantine Service of the Chinese Government for ten years. She earned a M.Sc. in Natural Resources Planning and Management from the Asian Institute of Technology. After graduating, she worked as Project Manager for a Thai company in Bangkok for four years. Niu is a native Naxi, an ethnic minority group in Lijiang, Yunnan Province of China and is fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese and Naxi.
Geoff Heal
Donald C. Waite III Professor Emeritus of Economics at Columbia Business School
Geoffrey Heal is Donald C. Waite III Professor Emeritus of Economics at Columbia Business School. Professor Heal has made contributions to economic theory and environmental economics. He explores developments in energy markets, the impact of climate change on business, the economics of biodiversity conservation and the economics of corporate social responsibility. He serves as Chair of the Board of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has chaired its committee on valuing ecosystem services, was a Commissioner of the Pew Oceans Commission, and was a coordinating lead author of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report. Heal is the author of 18 books and about 300 articles. His latest book, Endangered Economies — How the Neglect of Nature Threatens our Prosperity, sets out the economic and business case for environmental conservation. He has been a principal in two start-up companies.
Dr. Martin Schaefer
CEO, Jocotoco
Martin is a conservationist with 30 years of experience working in the neotropics from Mexico to Chile. Martin has a life-long commitment to improve the conservation of highly threatened but often little known ecosystems and species. Jointly with others, Martin prevented the extinction of the critically endangered Pale-headed Brushfinch that had an 89% extinction probability two decades ago. The population of this species quadrupled since Martin’s fieldwork. After a dual 17 years accomplished career in academia and conservation, Martin turned down the position of a Chair in Ecology and Evolution to focus entirely on protecting ecosystems and species. He became CEO of Jocotoco in 2016. Under his leadership, Jocotoco has been the quickest growing conservation organization in Latin America. The organization expanded into a holding consisting of two foundations and two subsidiary companies. Parallel to this growth, Jocotoco expanded its approach, establishing communal reserves as well as contributing to the establishment of the 60,000 km² marine reserve linking the Galapagos Islands to Cocos Island. Martin believes that scaling successful conservation of nature requires building institutional strength, local capacities, and excellent scientific data. To this end, Jocotoco has spearheaded innovative AI models to quantify both. These data enable us to integrate different conservation models on regional scales. Equally important is the ability to build lasting alliances to achieve long-term climate resilience for people and nature. In 2021, Martin has spearheaded developing a large research consortium of 20 universities studying the resilience and recovery of the Ecuadorian rainforest. At a time, when secondary forests surpass the area covered by old growth forest in the Tropics, we lacked a framework to understand the resilience of nature. Ground-breaking research has since shown that we nature heals itself rapidly if we just allow it to.
