From War Zones to Global Environment Talks, Communities Seek Faster Green Finance

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Iffat Rachid Edriss leads environment campaigns in Lebanon. Here she is at Raouche, Beirut, the only monk seal cave in Lebanon where Operation Big Blue Association was called in on a seal rescue mission. Credit: Iffat Rachid Edriss

SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan, Jun 4 2026 (IPS) - For three decades, Iffat Rachid Edriss walked Lebanon’s coastline with a clear purpose: protecting the sea she loves.

She organised cleanups, conducted research, and helped rescue marine species, including turtles, seals, and dolphins. Through wars, economic crises, and environmental challenges, her work continued largely through community effort.

“We worked very hard and kept our land and marine litter-free,” Edriss says.

Then came the Israel-Hezbollah war.

“In a few days, everything changed,” she recalls. “The weapons, the attacks and the destruction, the debris and litter everywhere, the trees were gone and the soil is contaminated.”

Now, the veteran environmentalist finds herself in Samarkand at the 71st Council Meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) , carrying a very different message. Instead of discussing conservation projects, she is advocating for funding to restore ecosystems damaged by war.

“In normal times, we do not need a penny from anyone, but we have been thrown into a different situation now. Now we need support – to restore our land, our water and our environment,” she told IPS.

Edriss’s story reflects a broader concern shared by civil society organisations gathered at the meeting: communities facing environmental crises often struggle to access the very funds created to support them.

Iffat Rachid Edriss of Lebanon, who is attending the 71st GEF Council meeting and the 8th GEF Assembly, raises her voice for greater, faster funding support to restore the environment in her war-torn country. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

Access Barriers Persist

Today, Edriss manages the Blue Stone Project , contributes to Lebanon’s public beach strategy, and leads the Ocean Literacy Hub in Beirut. Before the conflict, her team had developed an innovative solution to marine pollution by incorporating collected marine litter into construction materials.

“With the American University of Beirut, we proved that we could use up to 5 to 10 percent marine litter in construction materials,” she says. “You reduce the use of gravel as a natural resource, and you get rid of the marine litter.”

But those innovations are now overshadowed by a much larger challenge.

“Now there are weapons, chemicals and heavy metals. This will cost billions,” she says. “We need to work on soil and water restoration and greening Lebanon.”

The debate over how to finance such restoration efforts has become increasingly urgent as countries gather to negotiate contributions to GEF-9, the facility’s next four-year funding cycle covering 2026-2030.

Faisal Parish (third left) with other members of the GEF CSO Network from Asia, the Middle East and Africa. One of their responsibilities is to collect and share feedback with GEF on its current fund disbursement and implementation process. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

According to Faisal Parish, Chair of the GEF Civil Society Organization (CSO) Network , the replenishment has already secured significant commitments.

“The current pledge is 3.9 billion dollars. We hope by the end it will get to at least 4.5 billion,” Parish says.

Yet for civil society groups, the size of the fund is only part of the story.

“How that money will be dispersed and how quickly and whether it will reach the right levels – those are the key questions,” Parish says.

The GEF funding process involves multiple stages, including concept development, council approval, project design and implementation through a network of partner agencies such as UN agencies and development banks. While these safeguards are intended to ensure accountability, they often slow the delivery of funding to communities on the ground.

“To be frank, one of the barriers is the multiple levels of implementation,” Parish explains. “Some entities do not have easy mechanisms to give money directly to civil society.”

The challenge becomes even greater in countries where national institutions have limited reach into local communities.

“Many governments do not have the national-level mechanism to reach really down to the community,” he says.

Indigenous Funding Models

These concerns are particularly acute among Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) , who are expected to play a central role in achieving global biodiversity targets. Although GEF-9 includes a target that at least 20 percent of funding shou…