The COLOURS initiative of the EU and IUCN promises strong support towards countries committed to achieving the goals set out in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, with a special emphasis on achieving Target 3’s 30x30 objective.

COP16 has made its mark. "We celebrate the landmark adoption of a new subsidiary body dedicated to Indigenous peoples and local communities, the decision on the role of Afro-descendants, and the adoption of a new Programme of Work on Article 8(j)."

This critical funding will support the first wave of actions for PODONG, a groundbreaking initiative focused on catalysing conservation action led by Indigenous Peoples and creating a path for enhanced direct access to finance.

The Protected Planet Report 2024 reveals that 17.6% of land and inland waters and 8.4% of the ocean and coastal areas globally are within documented protected and conserved areas. While progress has been made on all elements that can be meaningfully tracked, the new data suggests that the world is falling short on the quality as well as the coverage of protected and conserved areas.

Many protected areas worldwide overlap with ‘territories and areas conserved by Indigenous peoples and local communities’ or ‘ICCAs’ (Indigenous peoples’ and community conserved areas’). These overlapped ICCAs include conserved commons, sacred places and Indigenous and community protected areas.

At COP16, the IUCN Green List took centre stage as a driver of conservation quality and effectiveness, with various sessions underscoring its alignment with global biodiversity goals. The Green List Awards Ceremony celebrated outstanding protected sites, highlighting the Green List as a benchmark for long-term success in governance, ecological integrity, and sustainable finance.

UN Climate Change High-Level Champion, COP28 Razan Al Mubarak and Dr. Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK share why nature remains our greatest ally in achieving net-zero.

Colombia itself is home to a third of our greatest natural asset—the Amazon rainforest. Once a vital carbon sink, some areas (particularly those unprotected by indigenous peoples) now risk turning into a carbon source.

Motivated by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s inclusion of inland waters in the target to conserve 30% of the planet by 2030, this report provides guidance in employing protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures to benefit these ecosystems and the biodiversity they support.

Collaborating with the Governments of Vanuatu and Fiji, IUCN Oceania reaffirmed the importance of stronger partnerships between global policymakers and Indigenous communities to ensure that Traditional Knowledge is central to biodiversity conservation strategies moving forward. “Traditional Knowledge is not just a tool for conservation,” stated Mr. Chand. 

During COP16, Mexico’s Government celebrated the launch of MEx30x30: Conserving Mexico’s biodiversity through communities and their protected areas, aligned with the 48 goals established in the National Biodiversity Strategy. This project aims to secure sustainable management of Mexico’s 232 protected areas.

During the Convention on Biological Diversity’s sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP16), representatives from Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Québec announced new financing for the fund that supports implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The IKI Networking Event at CBD COP16 in Cali explored “Inclusive and equitable approaches to biodiversity conservation”, bringing together 75 participants to discuss practical methods for engaging central stakeholders, particularly indigenous peoples and local communities in conservation efforts.

IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and Chery Group, an emerging global leader in automotive manufacturing, have launched a significant environmental partnership – Cherish the Nature – aiming at supporting the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of over 10 million hectares of ecosystems worldwide. Together with Chery, IUCN aims to drive impactful environmental outcomes by restoring ecosystems, conserving biodiversity and promoting sustainable development practices globally.

This paper finds that almost 30% of the 820 reported OECMs overlap with identified Key Biodiversity Areas, which are one global classification of areas of particular importance for biodiversity. With Target 3’s pressing deadline of 2030, there is an urgent need to scale up understanding and local to national engagement with the OECM framework, ensuring that it fulfills its potential to recognize diverse forms of equitable governance and effective conservation.

Organised by the IUCN Regional Office for South America, presenters from across Latin America highlighted how the Green List process has been instrumental in improving both public and private protected and conserved areas. These accounts demonstrated how nations are leveraging the Green List framework to meet conservation and social equity goals.

Co-founders of the Masungi Georeserve Foundation, have been recognized in TIME Magazine's 2024 Next Generation Leaders list, which honors ten global trailblazers who are leading with empathy and challenging the status quo. Billie Dumaliang and Ann are the winners of the IUCN-UNDP Pathfinder Award, 2018-part of the PANORAMA initiative.

This is the first volume in the WCPA Good Practice Guidelines that is predominantly by rangers and for rangers. The editors worked with partners to collect good practices and stories from rangers worldwide, reflecting global experience and lessons learned. The text focuses on actions that rangers, and to a lesser extent managers, can do themselves.
It does not address institutional changes that would need intervention at government level.

This guidance is intended as a resource for conservation professionals who are interested to learn more about
the relationship between conservation and human rights, especially the rights of Indigenous peoples and local
communities. For most Indigenous peoples, cultural rights are closely linked to land, which is often the site of cultural heritage, the source of cultural education and traditional knowledge, essential to spiritual practices and livelihoods, and is intimately tied to practising their way of life.

The paper builds on earlier work that informed voluntary guidance on equitable governance of protected
and conserved areas that was endorsed by CBD Parties at COP14 in 2018, reflecting some important advances in guidance and tools and key changes in the context between the era of Aichi Target 11 of the CBD Strategic Plan 2011-2020 and that of the 30x30 target of the GBF up to the year 2030.

The work of Singapore’s Ambassador for International Law, Rena Lee, and Kristina Gjerde, Senior High Seas Advisor to IUCN, was recognised and celebrated at a ceremony in New York City on October 24, broadcast virtually around the world. It honoured their pivotal contributions to the United Nations Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), an essential international framework for conserving biodiversity in the high seas.

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