A Critical Year for Nature: Now is the time to accelerate action on the Global Biodiversity Framework

E.J. Milner-Gulland , Éilish Farrelly , Talitha Bromwich, Cecil Haverkamp, Stefania Karlsdottir, Noelle Kumpel, Lain E Pardo, Rebecca Shaw, Thomas B White, Guido Broekhoven, Sarah Jones, Michael Obersteiner, Piero Visconti, Kotone Yamamoto, Mike Barrett

In October 2026, Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will convene for COP17 to review progress against the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) adopted in 2022. A global report provides a summary of collective progress, primarily drawing from government self-reporting at the halfway mark to 2030, the target year for taking urgent action to halt and reverse nature loss. Data suggest that action on the KMGBF to date remains highly insufficient. Simultaneously, the decline of biodiversity is continuing, with a real danger of reaching irreversible tipping points. We highlight four key needs to help turn this around: (i) an independent mechanism to track national and local efforts on nature to complement formal government reporting; (ii) an approach for prioritising the most impactful potential country actions, incorporating principles of fairness and ability to act; (iii) broader whole-of-society dialogue in and across countries on what works and what is needed; and (iv) a platform to facilitate context-specific scientific insights to support country-level and global action. To turn these needs into opportunities, we propose specific tools already under development which could complement existing CBD mechanisms to reinforce and account for collective action during these critical next few years.