In collaboration with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Conservation Strategy Fund is supporting six countries in their planning to effectively meet or exceed the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)’s post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) Target 3.
The draft GBF is expected to be adopted in December 2022 at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal, Canada. The framework comprises 21 targets and 10 ‘milestones’ proposed for 2030, with a commitment that “by 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.”
Draft Target 3 currently reads: “Ensure that at least 30 per cent globally of land areas and of sea areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and its contributions to people, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscapes and seascapes.”
The CSF team, and our consultants and partners will work closely with the national governments of Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Nepal, Namibia, and Zimbabwe to support each country’s planning to meet or exceed Target 3. A significant percentage of this increase in protected areas (PAs) is likely to come from newly identified other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs), including those governed by Indigenous peoples, local communities, and sectoral actors.
Specifically, CSF will support in-country assessment and documentation of baseline data and gaps assessment relating to enabling conditions for Target 3, identifying what additional data are required to support work towards Target 3. Focus will be placed on four key topics: (1) ecosystem representation, biodiversity and ecosystem services coverage, and governance, (2) financial sources, (3) benefits and co-benefits, and (4) factors affecting Target 3. By prioritizing data or knowledge gaps, our work will help support a more inclusive analysis and process for the development of national plans to achieve Target 3. Our activities and output will culminate in broader multi-stakeholder consultations about local-to-national priorities for Target 3 with a focus on right-based approaches to conservation, and to plan for effective, connected and climate resilient systems of PAs and OECMs.
Photo: Viewpoint in Pokhara, Nepal
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com