Earth Today | Nature’s recovery needs more than government action

TO PUT nature on a path to recovery is going to require more than action by national governments, according to a new assessment showing that a whole-of-society approach offers a viable route to helping to deliver on the 2030 goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

“The whole-of-society approach can be a very effective, inclusive, and cost-efficient pathway to strengthening implementation,” notes the 2026 State of Biodiversity Action report of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

“The impacts of different actors on biodiversity, and the reliance of those actors on biodiversity, the participation, rights, and resource needs of indigenous peoples and local communities, women, youth, and other actors; and the contributions that different actors are making or could make to the Framework are not yet being fully realized, accounted for and supported or consistently reflected in planning, monitoring and reporting,” it added.

One hundred and ninety-six Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the GBF in 2022, with its 23 targets including the restoration of 30 per cent of all degraded ecosystems, including degraded terrestrial, inland water, and marine and coastal ecosystems; and the conservation of 30 per cent of land, waters, and seas.

Other targets include stopping species extinction, protecting genetic diversity and managing human-wildlife conflicts, as well as reducing pollution to levels that are not harmful for biodiversity, such as by preventing, reducing, and working towards eliminating plastic pollution; and to minimise the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and build resilience.

To achieve those targets, the report suggests, requires the input of all stakeholders, with many national biodiversity strategies and action plans already describing the participation of different actors in national planning processes to varying degrees.

“And more than 100 actors other than national governments have made commitments in support of the Framework through the portal launched for that purpose,” the publication revealed.

However, it noted that up to now, there has been “uneven progress” in implementation on issues related not only to rights and equity but also to equitable governance and participation of rights holders and other actors, as well as in the actions of businesses and the engagement of stakeholders outside of national governments.

At the same time, countries have reported coordination and tracking challenges when it comes to the work of such actors towards their national targets under the GBF.

According to the report, there are a number of measures that can be put in place to make better use of the whole-of-society approach, including “strengthening the enabling environment for action by and accountability of businesses and financial actors” in their support of the GBF’s implementation.

“This could include developing and enforcing relevant policies, laws, and regulations, promoting biodiversity-related disclosure and reporting, integrating biodiversity considerations into business and financial decision-making and encouraging action across sectors and value chains that have significant impacts and dependencies on biodiversity,” the assessment explained.

“Further developing inclusive, rights-based, and youth-responsive and gender-responsive approaches could support more effective implementation of the Framework. This includes recognising rights holders as partners in implementation and promoting the full, equitable, inclusive, effective, and gender-responsive participation and representation of indigenous peoples and local communities, women, youth, persons with disabilities, and other relevant stakeholders in biodiversity-related policy- and decision-making,” it added.

In addition to the whole-of-society approach, other important means of implementation highlighted included mobilising financing, capacity building, communication and awareness, and technical and scientific cooperation.

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