Highlights from the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD/CoP-16)

It is important to point out that negotiations did not deliver all the results that were hoped for, and governments were unable to adopt all decisions before many delegates had to depart for home. Nonetheless, the negotiations and related events still demonstrated a strong sense of urgency, dedication, and growing actions across society and among the 196 country Parties to the Convention to implement its objectives and halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2030. Of great significance, CoP-16 focused on how countries can meet their commitments to the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), which explicitly includes ecological connectivity in Goal A and Targets 2, 3, and 12 as a key element for achieving the aims of the Convention.

With the loss of biodiversity continuing unabated, Parties to the Convention worked through an ambitious agenda to meet the urgency of the issue at hand. This included reviewing progress toward achieving the KMGBF, demonstrating alignment in National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plans (NBSAPs), further developing the KMGBF monitoring framework—with multiple indicators for connectivity—and advancing mobilization of resources.

Some of the highlights include:

• At least 20 countries and the European Union having submitted revised or updated NBSAPs that address connectivity;

• Release of the Protected Planet Report 2024, assessing the global status of protected and conserved areas, with Chapter 6 addressing the “well-connected” element of KMGBF Target 3 focused on achieving 30×30; and

• Adoption of a decision on plant conservation efforts to align with the KMGBF monitoring framework, with an Annex of voluntary complementary actions with indications of how connectivity conservation can be applied.

In parallel, hundreds of side events drove home how countries can meet their commitments under the KMGBF. Notably, the  official event on ecological connectivity led by the Center for Large Landscape Conservation featured presenters from five countries and five collaborative efforts. Events about avoiding and mitigating the impacts of linear infrastructure emphasized the great diversity of related initiatives, projects, and activities already underway that are driving implementation of the KMGBF around the world.

Governments, institutions, and communities around the world are ramping up activities to match commitments under the KMGBF. Although robust financial resources and technical capacities need to urgently improve, cooperation is growing and enabling whole-of-society approaches that are mainstreaming biodiversity within and across sectors at national and sub-national levels. With landscape, seascape, and ecological connectivity conservation increasingly recognized and applied as a key cross-cutting solution, its incorporation into relevant policies, strategies, and plans is supporting alignment of programs, initiatives, projects, and activities around the world.

Please note: This digest is intended to provide up-to-date information on policy development from a neutral, unaffiliated position as it relates to connectivity and corridor science and management.

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