A new paper, published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity, highlights an urgent challenge for implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF): countries need sustained investment in the monitoring systems required to measure biodiversity change and track progress.
The paper entitled, How networks and the Global Environment Facility can turn national reporting into lasting biodiversity monitoring capacity, builds on findings from the global review of countries’ progress towards the GBF, which point to a persistent implementation gap. Ambitious targets have been established, but many countries need greater capacity, infrastructure and resources to translate them into action and measure results, whilst others have the data, face systems barriers in standardising and making data available. Closing this implementation gap requires funding, including sustained investment in national biodiversity monitoring.
The authors highlight an important opportunity for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to turn investments in national reporting into lasting monitoring capacity. Central to the proposed approach are national and regional Biodiversity Observation Networks (BONs), which can coordinate monitoring communities, institutions and data within countries, alongside the Technical and Scientific Cooperation Support Centres (TSCCs) established under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which can help countries access the technical expertise and capacity needed for implementation.
By connecting national BONs, TSCCs, regional and thematic BONs, and the wider GEO BON network, investments can build on existing institutions and expertise, consolidate skills and build targeted capacity, rather than creating isolated projects. This creates a pathway for finance to strengthen the sustained, coordinated national monitoring systems countries need to implement the GBF, guide biodiversity action and measure progress over the long term.
The paper is authored by GEO BON co-chairs Andrew Gonzalez, Alice Hughes, Maria-Cecilia Londoño and Haigen Xu, with Executive Secretary Katie Millette.
The paper will be available, open access, approximately one week ahead of CBD COP17 and for a limited time after COP17. During this period, we encourage the GEO BON community and partners to read and share it widely.
Read the paper: How networks and the Global Environment Facility can turn national reporting into lasting biodiversity monitoring capacity, published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity.