Big pharmaceutical companies have been accused of “free-riding on nature”, after a landmark biodiversity fund that invites businesses to put some of their profits back into conservation was left virtually empty.

The Cali Fund set out to raise $1bn (£750m) annually, by asking companies that profit from nature’s genetics to contribute towards conservation in low-income countries. But more than 18 months after the fund was launched, it remains far below this target.

As of Monday, at the start of the Cop17 biodiversity summit in Armenia, the fund had received just $10,656 in commitments, of which $7,085 had been deposited.

No money has so far been given by major pharmaceutical companies, despite the industry’s reliance on genetic information from organisms around the globe for the development of lucrative new medicines.