Challenges for small island developing states in meeting monitoring requirements of the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework

Philip JK McGowan, Anik Jarvis, Helena Jeffrey Brown, Ashley Dias, Jeremiah K Edmund, Indira Gamatis, Aria St Louis

The Kunming Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an ambitious agreement to halt the decline in the world’s biodiversity by 2030 and restore nature by 2050. In order to measure progress towards the Framework’s Goals and Targets, a monitoring framework has been established and this includes 26 headline indicators and 71 questions comprising binary indicators that all Parties are expected to report against. There are a further 189 optional indicators. Parties vary enormously in human population size, with 13 Parties having a population of fewer than 100,000 inhabitants and 15 with more than 100 million, affecting their ability to meet reporting needs. Small Island Developing States face particular challenges in availability of data, access to existing data and data management, synthesising and analysing data and reporting. Addressing these challenges requires a high level need to understand and agree on the importance of gathering and managing sufficient data to meet reporting requirements, adopting a unified approach to reporting so that data management and verification is efficient and effective. All of this does need adequate resources, whether nationally or regionally. The establishment of regional and subregional techncial and scientific support centres through the Convention’s Technical and Scientific Cooperation Mechanism provides an opportunity to develop realistic, appropriate and sustainable data management and reporting processes.