E.SUN Financial Holding Highlights Taiwan’s Nature Finance Initiatives at COP17
E.SUN Financial Holding has brought Taiwan’s growing experience in biodiversity conservation and sustainable finance to the international stage through its debut at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17). The participation marked an important step in the financial institution’s efforts to demonstrate how financial services, corporate partnerships, and community-based conservation initiatives can contribute to global biodiversity protection.
E.SUN Chief Sustainability Officer Louis L.Y. Chang was invited by the World Climate Foundation (WCF) and the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation (FfB) to participate in discussions held in the Blue Zone on October 26 and 27. During the sessions, Chang delivered a presentation titled “Bridging the Biodiversity Financing Gap: E.SUN’s Practice and Vision for Nature Capital,” outlining the company’s approach to integrating biodiversity considerations into financial activities and supporting projects that generate positive environmental outcomes.
E.SUN’s participation provided an opportunity to introduce Taiwan’s nature finance experience to international policymakers, financial institutions, sustainability organizations, and other stakeholders. The company emphasized that addressing biodiversity loss requires cooperation across multiple sectors, with financial institutions playing an important role in directing capital toward sustainable economic activities and conservation projects.
The presentation also highlighted the need to move beyond traditional environmental commitments and develop practical financing mechanisms that can support measurable biodiversity outcomes. Through its initiatives in agriculture, habitat restoration, native species conservation, and sustainable lending, E.SUN demonstrated how financial institutions can help connect environmental objectives with business development and local community participation.
CBD COP17 Focuses on Accelerating Global Biodiversity Action
CBD COP17 was held in Yerevan, Armenia, from October 19 to 30 under the theme “Taking Action for Nature.” The international conference brought together representatives from governments, financial institutions, environmental organizations, businesses, and civil society to review progress on biodiversity protection and identify opportunities to accelerate global action.
A major focus of the conference was the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, an international agreement designed to address biodiversity loss and establish a pathway toward protecting and restoring nature. The framework highlights the importance of conserving ecosystems, restoring degraded environments, reducing threats to biodiversity, and mobilizing financial resources to support environmental objectives.
One of the major challenges discussed during the conference was the biodiversity financing gap. Protecting ecosystems and restoring natural habitats require substantial long-term investment, while many conservation projects continue to face difficulties securing adequate funding. Governments and environmental organizations cannot address these challenges independently, making private-sector participation and financial-sector involvement increasingly important.
As the only Taiwanese financial institution attending COP17, E.SUN shared its experience in connecting financial resources with biodiversity conservation. Its participation highlighted the potential contribution of banks and financial holding companies to the development of nature-positive economic activities.
E.SUN explained how financial institutions can act as intermediaries between capital providers, businesses, environmental organizations, and local communities. By incorporating biodiversity considerations into financing decisions, banks can encourage companies to adopt more sustainable operating practices while supporting projects that protect ecosystems and natural resources.
Following Chang’s keynote presentation, representatives from the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the Inter-American Development Bank, Danske Bank Asset Management, and Storebrand Asset Management contributed additional perspectives to the discussion.
The participants explored opportunities to strengthen collaboration among stakeholders, support corporate transitions toward more sustainable business models, and expand the availability of biodiversity-related financing. Their discussions reinforced the importance of developing practical financial solutions that can translate international biodiversity commitments into measurable action.
E.SUN’s Malavi Project Supports Indigenous Farmers and Organic Agriculture
E.SUN’s biodiversity strategy extends beyond financial products and includes long-term investments in conservation, environmental education, and cultural preservation. One of its key initiatives is the Malavi Project, which has supported Indigenous farmers in adopting organic agricultural practices since 2014.
The project reflects E.SUN’s approach to connecting agricultural development with environmental protection. Traditional farming activities can have significant effects on surrounding ecosystems, particularly when they involve excessive chemical inputs or unsustainable land management. By encouraging organic farming, the initiative aims to reduce environmental pressure while supporting agricultural practices that are more compatible with biodiversity conservation.
Through the Malavi Project, E.SUN has worked with Indigenous farming communities to promote sustainable cultivation methods and improve awareness of environmentally responsible agricultural production. The initiative has helped bring more than 19 hectares of farmland under organic certification.
Organic certification represents an important milestone because it provides a recognized framework for agricultural practices that avoid prohibited synthetic chemical inputs and follow established production standards. Beyond the certification itself, the project demonstrates how financial institutions can support local communities in adopting agricultural methods that contribute to healthier ecosystems.
In 2026, the Malavi Project achieved another significant milestone by becoming one of Taiwan’s first certified Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs). This recognition highlights the potential of agricultural landscapes to contribute to biodiversity conservation when they are managed in ways that support ecological functions and protect natural habitats.
OECMs are areas outside formally designated protected areas that are governed and managed in ways that deliver effective, long-term conservation benefits. The approach recognizes that biodiversity protection does not necessarily take place only within national parks or officially designated nature reserves. Agricultural areas, community-managed landscapes, and other locations can also contribute to conservation when their management produces positive and sustained environmental outcomes.
The recognition of the Malavi Project demonstrates how agricultural production and biodiversity conservation can reinforce one another. Instead of treating farming and environmental protection as competing objectives, the initiative promotes an approach in which responsible land use can support both community livelihoods and ecological health.
For E.SUN, the project also provides an example of how financial institutions can contribute to conservation by supporting local initiatives over an extended period. Its experience illustrates the importance of partnerships with Indigenous communities and the need to recognize local knowledge when developing nature-positive solutions.
Partnership With National Taiwan University Advances Native Plant Conservation
E.SUN has also expanded its biodiversity initiatives through collaboration with academic institutions. In 2022, the company partnered with National Taiwan University to establish the ESG Centenary Project, a long-term initiative designed to support native plant conservation and strengthen Taiwan’s natural ecosystems.
The project aims to plant 100,000 native Taiwanese conifers over a ten-year period. The initiative reflects the importance of protecting native vegetation, particularly as forests and natural habitats face pressures from environmental changes and human activities.
Native plants play an important role in maintaining ecological balance. They provide habitats and food sources for wildlife, support soil stability, contribute to water regulation, and help preserve the natural characteristics of local ecosystems. Protecting native species is therefore an important part of broader biodiversity conservation efforts.
Through the ESG Centenary Project, E.SUN and National Taiwan University are combining institutional resources and academic knowledge to support long-term environmental objectives. The partnership also highlights the role that universities can play in developing scientific approaches to conservation and improving public understanding of ecological sustainability.
In addition to planting native conifers, the project has contributed to the revival of 28 Indigenous millet varieties in Xinyi Township, Nantou County. This component adds an important cultural dimension to the biodiversity initiative.
Traditional crop varieties represent valuable agricultural and cultural resources. Over time, changes in farming practices, consumer preferences, and agricultural production systems can lead to the decline of traditional varieties. Preserving these crops helps maintain agricultural diversity while protecting knowledge and practices that have been passed down through generations.
The revival of Indigenous millet varieties therefore supports more than agricultural conservation. It also contributes to the preservation of Indigenous cultural heritage and traditional knowledge associated with local food systems.
By combining native plant restoration with traditional crop preservation, E.SUN’s partnership with National Taiwan University demonstrates a broader understanding of biodiversity. Conservation involves not only protecting forests and wildlife but also maintaining agricultural diversity, cultural traditions, and the relationship between communities and their natural environments.
The initiative further illustrates how corporate sustainability programs can contribute to environmental and social objectives simultaneously. Through academic cooperation and community engagement, the ESG Centenary Project aims to generate long-term benefits that extend beyond individual conservation activities.
Nature Finance Connects Sustainable Agriculture With Business Development
Alongside its conservation and education initiatives, E.SUN is using financial services to encourage businesses to incorporate biodiversity considerations into their operations.
One of its major initiatives is the “Farm to Table Sustainable Food and Agriculture Value Chain Financing” program. The initiative is designed to connect different participants across the food and agricultural supply chain, including agricultural producers, food processors, logistics providers, hospitality businesses, and other related industries.
Food production and distribution depend heavily on natural resources and functioning ecosystems. Agricultural businesses require healthy soil, reliable water supplies, pollination, and stable environmental conditions. At the same time, food processing, transportation, storage, and hospitality activities can influence resource consumption, waste generation, and environmental performance.
Addressing these challenges requires cooperation across the entire value chain rather than focusing exclusively on individual agricultural producers.
E.SUN’s financing initiative seeks to encourage this broader approach by providing financial support to businesses involved in sustainable food and agricultural systems. Connecting different industries through financing can help companies strengthen their sustainability practices while supporting more responsible production and consumption patterns.
The farm-to-table concept also emphasizes the relationship between agricultural production and end consumers. By supporting businesses throughout the supply chain, financial institutions can help promote more sustainable sourcing, processing, transportation, and distribution practices.
For participating companies, access to financing can provide resources for improving operations, adopting sustainable technologies, and developing business models that take environmental considerations into account.
For financial institutions, these financing arrangements offer an opportunity to integrate environmental objectives into traditional lending activities. Rather than treating biodiversity as a separate corporate responsibility issue, banks can incorporate nature-related considerations into decisions about which business activities receive financial support.
E.SUN’s initiative illustrates how financial products can serve as practical tools for encouraging sustainability across interconnected industries.
Biodiversity-Linked Loans Encourage Corporate Environmental Responsibility
E.SUN is also developing financing arrangements that directly connect corporate lending with biodiversity conservation and habitat restoration. Its biodiversity-linked and OECM-related loan initiatives with Yulon Motor and CPC Corporation, Taiwan, demonstrate how financial institutions can incorporate nature-related objectives into relationships with major businesses.
These financing arrangements are designed to bring environmental considerations into corporate financial activities, including species restoration and habitat conservation. By connecting lending with biodiversity-related initiatives, E.SUN is encouraging companies to consider their environmental responsibilities alongside their commercial and operational objectives.
The involvement of Yulon Motor and CPC Corporation, Taiwan, is particularly relevant because businesses across different industries depend on natural resources and can influence the surrounding environment through their operations and supply chains.
For companies, biodiversity-related financing can provide an opportunity to integrate conservation considerations into broader sustainability strategies. It can also encourage closer cooperation with environmental organizations, researchers, and government agencies to identify projects that deliver meaningful ecological benefits.
For banks, these arrangements represent an evolving approach to sustainable lending. Traditional financing decisions have generally emphasized financial performance, creditworthiness, and repayment capacity. However, growing attention to climate change, biodiversity loss, and natural resource depletion is encouraging financial institutions to consider additional environmental factors.
Biodiversity-linked lending can help connect corporate investment with measurable conservation activities, provided that environmental objectives are clearly defined and supported by appropriate monitoring.
E.SUN’s initiatives with Yulon Motor and CPC Corporation demonstrate its intention to expand nature finance beyond individual conservation projects and integrate biodiversity considerations into the wider business environment.
Public-Private-Philanthropic Partnership Restores Niaosong Wetland
Another important element of E.SUN’s biodiversity strategy is its participation in a Public-Private-Philanthropic Partnership (PPPP) focused on restoring natural habitats at Niaosong Wetland.
The initiative brings together organizations from the private sector, environmental community, and public administration. Its partners include Okuma Fishing Tackle, the Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society, the Kaohsiung City Government Tourism Bureau, and Taiwan Water Corporation.
Through this collaborative arrangement, the partners are working to remove invasive species and restore habitats at Niaosong Wetland using Nature-based Solutions (NbS).
Wetlands are important ecosystems that provide habitats for numerous plant and animal species. They also contribute to water management, help maintain ecological balance, and provide environmental benefits to surrounding communities. However, invasive species can threaten native biodiversity by competing with local species, changing habitat conditions, and disrupting established ecological relationships.
Removing invasive species is therefore an important part of wetland restoration. However, effective conservation requires more than the removal of unwanted plants or animals. It also involves restoring suitable habitat conditions and supporting the long-term health of native ecosystems.
The Niaosong Wetland initiative reflects the value of bringing together different organizations with complementary expertise and resources.
Environmental organizations can contribute ecological knowledge and experience in habitat management. Government agencies can support coordination and public engagement, while private-sector participants can contribute financial resources, technical capabilities, and organizational support.
E.SUN’s involvement demonstrates how financial institutions can help facilitate partnerships that extend beyond conventional banking activities. By connecting different stakeholders, the company can support conservation projects that may otherwise face difficulties securing sufficient resources and coordination.
The use of Nature-based Solutions also reflects a growing emphasis on working with natural ecosystems to address environmental challenges. Rather than relying exclusively on conventional infrastructure or isolated interventions, NbS focuses on protecting, restoring, and sustainably managing natural systems to deliver environmental and societal benefits.
Through the Niaosong Wetland project, E.SUN and its partners are demonstrating how collaborative approaches can support habitat restoration while strengthening relationships between businesses, public institutions, environmental organizations, and local communities.
Financial Institutions Play a Growing Role in Nature-Positive Development
E.SUN’s participation at COP17 reflects a broader shift in the financial industry toward recognizing biodiversity as an important consideration in economic development and investment decisions.
For many years, sustainable finance discussions focused heavily on climate change, carbon emissions, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. While these issues remain essential, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are receiving increasing attention from financial institutions and investors.
Natural ecosystems provide services that support economic activity across numerous industries. Agriculture depends on healthy soil, water availability, and pollination. Manufacturing businesses rely on natural resources and stable supply chains. Tourism benefits from healthy landscapes and protected natural environments.
When ecosystems deteriorate, businesses can face operational disruptions, supply-chain vulnerabilities, increased costs, and long-term financial risks.
This creates a growing need for financial institutions to understand how their lending and investment activities interact with nature. It also creates opportunities to direct capital toward projects that protect biodiversity and encourage more sustainable business practices.
E.SUN’s initiatives illustrate several ways financial institutions can respond to this challenge. These include supporting sustainable agriculture, financing biodiversity-related corporate activities, partnering with academic institutions, preserving Indigenous agricultural heritage, and facilitating habitat restoration.
The company’s experience also highlights the importance of cooperation. Biodiversity challenges are interconnected and often extend beyond the boundaries of individual companies or communities. Effective solutions therefore require collaboration among financial institutions, businesses, government agencies, universities, environmental organizations, and local populations.
By bringing its experience to an international platform such as COP17, E.SUN aims to contribute to discussions about how nature finance can become more practical, accessible, and effective.
E.SUN Emphasizes the Connection Between Climate Action and Biodiversity
During the conference, Chang highlighted the relationship between climate action and biodiversity conservation, emphasizing that environmental initiatives cannot succeed independently of one another.
“Without nature and biodiversity, climate action cannot succeed,” said Chang.
His remarks reflected the growing recognition that climate change and biodiversity loss are closely interconnected challenges. Climate change can damage ecosystems, alter habitats, and threaten species, while healthy natural ecosystems can contribute to climate resilience and support carbon storage.
Forests, wetlands, and other natural environments provide important ecological functions that help communities and businesses adapt to environmental changes. Protecting these ecosystems is therefore relevant not only to biodiversity objectives but also to wider climate and sustainability strategies.
Chang also emphasized the role of finance in connecting conservation with economic development.
“Finance can serve as a bridge between conservation and development, between local action and global impact, and between today’s investment and a nature-positive future,” he said.
The statement reflects E.SUN’s approach to sustainable finance, in which financial resources are viewed as an important mechanism for supporting environmental progress. Through financing products, corporate partnerships, and community-based projects, the company aims to demonstrate how financial institutions can contribute to conservation while supporting sustainable economic activities.
E.SUN Expands Taiwan’s Presence in Global Nature Finance Discussions
E.SUN Financial Holding’s debut at CBD COP17 represents an opportunity to bring Taiwan’s biodiversity and sustainable finance experience into wider international discussions.
Its participation highlighted a range of initiatives developed over several years, from the Malavi Project’s support for Indigenous organic farmers to the ESG Centenary Project’s native plant conservation activities. The company also presented its efforts to integrate biodiversity into lending arrangements, support sustainable agricultural value chains, and coordinate partnerships for wetland restoration.
Together, these initiatives demonstrate how nature finance can extend across different sectors and involve a broad range of stakeholders.
The company’s experience also reinforces the importance of connecting local conservation activities with international biodiversity objectives. While global frameworks establish shared targets and priorities, their implementation depends on practical projects that can generate positive outcomes in individual communities and ecosystems.
For E.SUN, participation in COP17 provides an opportunity to share its experience, learn from international financial institutions, and explore additional ways to strengthen cooperation on biodiversity financing.
As financial institutions increasingly examine the relationship between nature, economic activity, and financial stability, initiatives such as those presented by E.SUN offer examples of how financial services can contribute to environmental protection.
The company’s message at COP17 was that mobilizing finance for nature requires more than funding conservation activities. It also requires integrating biodiversity into business decisions, building partnerships across industries, and supporting local communities that play an essential role in protecting natural resources.
Through its continued work in sustainable agriculture, native species conservation, biodiversity-linked financing, and ecosystem restoration, E.SUN is positioning nature finance as an important part of its broader sustainability strategy.
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