Integrating Rights of Nature into the Implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

The adoption of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at CBD COP15 in 2022 marks a pivotal moment in global conservation governance. For the first time, the Convention explicitly references concepts aligned with Rights of Nature (RoN) approaches, notably in Section C and Targets 14 and 19(f). Rights of Nature, now represented in nearly 600 initiatives across 56 countries (Eco-jurisprudence Monitor), is an expanding legal, social and political movement that challenges anthropocentric governance and dominant extractive economic systems. RoN frameworks recognise nature as possessing intrinsic value, while also reflecting relational worldviews, particularly those of Indigenous Peoples, that understand humans as part of, rather than separate from, the living world.

This paper argues that RoN approaches offer critical tools for the just, inclusive and effective implementation of the GBF. Evidence from emerging jurisprudence, including landmark cases such as Ecuador’s Los Cedros case, demonstrates how RoN-based governance can strengthen environmental decision-making, support ecological recovery and safeguard the rights and wellbeing of both nature and human communities. Despite the GBF’s acknowledgement of diverse value systems, current monitoring, reporting and NBSAP processes do not yet provide mechanisms to meaningfully integrate intrinsic or relational ecological values, nor to capture progress arising from RoN initiatives.

Drawing on comparative case studies from Ecuador, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, this research examines the extent to which RoN principles are reflected in national biodiversity governance and monitoring frameworks. Lessons learned are used to propose pathways for enhancing GBF implementation, including: participatory and rights-based development of NBSAPs; reporting instruments that recognise RoN governance innovations; and the development of socio-ecological indicators capable of reflecting ecological integrity, relational values, and nature’s intrinsic rights.

By positioning RoN as a governance approach that can operationalise the transformative ambition of the GBF, this research contributes to emerging scholarship and practice on pluralistic, equitable and ecocentric biodiversity governance.