As climate change and socio-economic transformations accelerate, the global distribution of biodiversity is undergoing rapid and often unpredictable shifts. These changes present a challenge for conventional approaches to planning area-based conservation instruments (e.g. protected areas and spatial zoning) which remain limited to relatively static representations of environmental conditions and often overlook diverse social perspectives on the goals and priorities of conservation.

This session addresses the urgent need to rethink prevailing static spatial planning instruments to make them more responsive, flexible, and forward-looking. We welcome submissions that examine innovative approaches, models, and governance frameworks that can help define area-based conservation strategies that better respond to future climate and socio-economic changes and reflect alternative conceptions of what constitutes desirable conservation outcomes. The goal of this session is to support efforts to make spatial conservation planning more dynamic, equitable, and robust under uncertainty with a view to informing international processes such as the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. In this regard, the contributions of this session will be synthesized into a set of actionable recommendations aimed at guiding planners and decision-makers in aligning biodiversity strategies with a future characterized by climate and socio-economic changes.