The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (UN–DER) (2021–2030), co-led by UNEP and FAO, represents the most ambitious global effort to halt and reverse ecosystem degradation. Within this framework, the IUCN-led Science Task Force (STF) plays a vital role in providing the scientific foundation to guide, monitor, and accelerate restoration.
This session will explore how nations and societies can advance Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) Target 2–to restore at least 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland water, coastal, and marine ecosystems by 2030–while fostering broader systemic transformation. Key barriers include challenges in measuring restoration progress, uncertainties in defining degradation, weak integration of socio-economic realities, limited use of spatial prioritization, and difficulties in distinguishing interventions from demonstrable ecological and social gains.
Drawing on STF expertise, the session will emphasize actionable solutions such as robust ecological and socio-economic indicators, decision-support tools, and scalable approaches for monitoring and upscaling. Special attention will be given to the contributions of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), whose knowledge systems and stewardship practices are critical for inclusive and resilient restoration strategies.
We invite contributions from researchers, practitioners, policymakers, civil society, governments, private sector actors, and IPLCs, highlighting case studies and innovations from diverse contexts. Outcomes will inform STF and Best Practices Task Force processes, supporting evidence-based decision-making and catalyzing transformative restoration under the UN-DER and KMGBF Target 2.

While urbanization can threaten biodiversity, the sustainable transformation of urban landscapes is key to achieving the 2030 GBF targets. Conserving and expanding urban and peri-urban green areas not only provides habitat for wildlife, sustains ecosystem services, and enhances climate resilience, but also supports human well-being. Yet, the multifunctional potential of urban green spaces is often underused due to weak regulations, limited implementation of biodiversity measures, siloed decision-making, and competing land-use demands.
This session examines how greening measures in urban and peri-urban environments can maximize benefits for both ecosystems and society. It explores what good examples of biodiversity-inclusive planning, governance, and management processes look like, for example, by including both traditional and scientific knowledge about species and habitats in the territory. We invite contributions on land-use regulations, planning processes, and policies that foster biodiversity in urban and peri-urban areas. Greening measures can include, for example, non-sealing and greening policies, river restoration, urban forestry, native planting, and other nature-based solutions or blue-green infrastructures. We focus on approaches with transformative leverage, capable of turning urban environments into diverse and resilient habitats for human and non-human species.
By bringing together research that integrates natural and social sciences, showcases biodiversity mainstreaming, and reflects on barriers and enablers of implementation, the session will highlight how collaborative and integrated approaches can accelerate GBF implementation and expand the quantity, quality, connectivity, accessibility, and social benefits of urban green spaces.

The ocean sustains much of Earth’s biodiversity, yet it remains understudied, undervalued, and increasingly imperilled. Preserving biodiversity in the Blue Ocean – marine areas beyond national jurisdiction - is challenged by sparse data, political and legal issues, and mounting anthropogenic pressures, including climate change.
Marine biodiversity baselines, from which anthropogenic impact is assessed, require long-term data. This session explores how interdisciplinary knowledge – particularly integrating paleobiological, historical, ecological, and social perspectives – can support GBF Target 3 (the "30x30" goal) by informing the identification and design of ecologically representative marine protected areas (MPAs). Fossil and historical records provide critical information to identify threatened species, understand extinction dynamics, and guide the conservation of genetic, taxonomic, and functional diversity – contributing to GBF Target 4. Given the accelerating impacts of climate change, long-term perspectives can anticipate marine biodiversity shifts and strengthen the effectiveness of conservation strategies, supporting GBF Target 8.
We invite contributions that demonstrate how time-extended data, integrative modelling, and interdisciplinary approaches can inform spatial prioritization, improve extinction risk assessments, and anticipate future changes in marine ecosystems. By bridging disciplines and timescales, this session aims to support transformative action toward resilient and inclusive ocean stewardship under the Global Biodiversity Framework.

Actions for biodiversity conservation, restoration and sustainable use require assessments and effective monitoring at all levels which includes genetic diversity. Accurate, useful, and affordable indicators and metrics are needed for such monitoring, in order to identify threats at early stages as well as evaluation outcomes of restoration efforts and modified management strategies, and adjustments of such where needed. Several genetic indicators that are a part of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Global Biodiversity Framework, developed and advanced in an ongoing manner with several CBD Parties, are helping meet this need. For example, the Headline indicator A.4. helps to track whether populations of species are large enough to sustain their long-term adaptive potential and resilience. In parallel, scientists are working to develop and apply DNA-based indicators that can follow other, more specific, or complex trends in genetic diversity. Furthermore, recent advances, alongside the headline focus on the size of populations, open the door to using scalable methods like Earth Observation to help monitor genetic diversity. In this session, you will learn about how to use these indicators and knowledge learned from working with countries to monitor genetic diversity at local, national, and international scales for biodiversity conservation and restoration.

In adopting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and its respective monitoring framework, the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) committed to national goals and targets for biodiversity and to reporting on indicators of their progress. Earth Observation (EO) should be leveraged to support the calculation and observation of these indicators for purposes of monitoring and reporting on national levels. EO can further provide cost-effective, time-critical and spatially continuous input for the conservation of biodiversity worldwide.
Incorporating EO technologies and resulting information into the framework of the GBF requires close interdisciplinary collaboration and the exchange of knowledge among specialists of various backgrounds. Within this session, we aim to facilitate the exchange of ideas and collaborations among biodiversity practitioners, scientists (EO- and non-EO specialists), policy makers, and industry experts. We work toward filling gaps between the knowledge and technologies available to researchers and the information needed for large scale reporting. We invite abstracts that address current needs and gaps in biodiversity monitoring, that demonstrate the potential of EO technology to fill monitoring gaps, combine different data sources including remote sensing technologies for large scale biodiversity monitoring, and demonstrate current limitations. We welcome abstracts including but not limited to the GBF indicators, Essential Biodiversity and Ecosystem Variables, and for effective biodiversity conservation on large scales.

Spatial prioritisation sits the at the heart of conservation planning as it determines how effectively space is utilised and allocated resources. The post-2020 CBD targets spurred not only the consolidation of global biodiversity datasets (e.g GBIF) but also the creation of tools for modelling, mapping and visualising biological processes. Interactive maps have become a go-to medium for conveying scientific information and bridging the knowledge-practise barrier. Digital maps, with their intuitive dashboards are increasingly used for quantifying nature-related risks (e.g ABC-map, TNFD), and predicting the impact of future developments (COLA, Jants et al. 2024).
The broad suite of tools that are available signals an encouraging trend of demand among practitioners in both the public and private sector. It is imperative ,however, that these digital maps are underpinned by tested biodiversity models, with bounds of use that are understood and communicated clearly. Modelling biodiversity is a active and rapidly developing field of science, and will be elevated by including practitioners in the design process of these visualisation platforms to ensure model outputs meet the specific needs of practitioners and regulators.
Therefore, at the World Biodiversity Forum 2026, we are proposing a session called ‘Mapping Life’ with the explicit objective of convening both developers and users of biodiversity maps. The session will, by design, reach across disciplinary divides and offer an opportunity for practitioners and scientists to develop a shared understanding and vocabulary around the subject.

For examples of biodiversity mapping tools, see:
https://www.ibat-alliance.org
https://abc-map.fao.org

When Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in December 2022, hopes were high that it would set the world on the path for realizing its vision of “living in harmony with nature by 2050”. Indeed, several of the GBF’s 23 action-oriented targets for 2030 are more specific than its predecessor, the 2010-2020 Aichi Targets, and at least on paper, the GBF significantly strengthens the CBD’s accountability mechanisms. COP 17 in October 2026 will see the first global stocktake of parties’ collective progress towards achieving the GBF’s 2030 targets and 2050 vision. However, the official stocktaking process has two blind spots related to, first, its collective character, which does not aim at assessing countries’ individual performance, and, second, its strong focus on ecological indicators, which ignores many social and governance aspects.
Shortly before CBD COP 17, this session will open up a space for broader analysis of progress towards just and effective GBF implementation. We aim to critically discuss topics such as the role of social and governance indicators in the GBF’s monitoring framework, the legal and political strength of its broader accountability framework, national efforts at just GBF implementation (including, but not limited to, aspects of distributive, procedural, and recognition justice), processes of translating GBF norms into national contexts, etc. We invite submissions from scholars and practitioners and particularly value contributions that combine rigorous analysis of the status quo with forward-looking policy recommendations. We will consider publication of a policy brief or perspectives paper for CBD COP 17 together with session contributors shortly after the session.

Achieving the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework requires immediate and ambitious action across sectors, particularly within financial institutions and corporations. Yet, translating emerging (academic) frameworks into actionable biodiversity targets has proven complex, with many practical questions still unresolved.
This workshop will present and discuss the outcomes of a large-scale action research project conducted between 2024 and 2025 with six leading asset managers and pension funds, alongside organisations such as WWF and the Sustainable Finance Lab. Drawing on candid reflections from a transdisciplinary team spanning ecology, finance, and business sustainability, we will explore how institutions can identify the right information to set informed targets, including assessments of biodiversity impacts, drivers, risks, and opportunities. Participants will engage with key themes such as the types of biodiversity targets financial and corporate actors can adopt, the support structures needed to sustain implementation, and the type of strategic interventions such as engagement for systemic change, and the integration of biodiversity targets within the climate-biodiversity nexus and the exploration of social justice We will have a particular focus on deforestation as a critical test case.
The session aims to foster dialogue among financial actors, NGOs, academics, and practitioners, building on collaborative initiatives such as the Financing Biodiversity Project in the Netherlands. By connecting theory with practice, the workshop seeks to advance collective capacity for setting and operationalising biodiversity-positive financial strategies that are both ambitious, triggering time-bound action and equitable.

The call for transformative governance in biodiversity conservation is growing. Global biodiversity governance is shifting toward greater scrutiny and support for non-traditional actors and deeper interaction between public and private entities—from the bottom up, rather than focusing solely on legal regimes and state-centric practices.

This “whole-of-society approach” is central to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). As emphasized in the CBD Action Agenda for Nature and People, not only national governments and international organizations, but also sub-national authorities, businesses, Indigenous peoples, local communities, researchers, and NGOs—so-called “middle-out” actors—are increasingly participating in biodiversity efforts.

Challenges remain: translating this approach into local practice, preventing unintended effects like greenwashing or sectoral leakage, and aligning fragmented institutions. Governance innovation is critical. Without equitable distribution of governance capacity, the whole-of-society approach risks becoming a “nobody’s approach.” Capacity must be built across three domains: enabling rules, shared discourses, and access to essential resources. This fosters a polycentric system grounded in accountability, transparency, justice, equity, and sustainability.

This session explores theoretical debates, conceptual innovations, and empirical insights into how this approach is adopted. We examine the roles of non-state actors, their networks, and agency in co-designing biodiversity solutions. We invite experts to share research, practical experience, and policy insights to help advance the GBF and foster collaboration for change.

How can countries truly measure and protect genetic diversity under the CBD Global Biodiversity Framework? The first step is to identify the list of species that are relevant to monitor over time. This may seem like a straightforward task but in reality, there are many parameters to consider.
Drawing on the EU Biodiversa+ GINAMO project’s co-creation work with European countries, this 90 min workshop invites participants to actively work on and discuss methodologies for species selection and how to ensure a broader, more representative set of species, than those already “on the radar”, such as threatened or legally protected. Species covering varied ecosystems, taxonomic groups, threat levels and life histories must be assessed and monitored for genetic diversity to ensure robust, long-term monitoring portfolios, and to ensure indicators reflect the real state of genetic diversity and can guide future action.
The workshop aims to:
-stimulate critical discussion on species selection strategies for GBF Goal A monitoring, emphasizing inclusivity across relevant spectra,
-explore methodologies for selection criteria,
- explore pathways for integrating broader species sets into national indicator frameworks to improve policy relevance and long-term monitoring viability,
- foster a shared understanding among participants of why representative species selection strengthens countries' use of CBD GBF Goal A.
You’ll leave with:
-new insights on inclusive species selection and its policy relevance,
-a preliminary list of practical criteria for national and regional species portfolio design,
-links to an active network of genetic experts in biodiversity monitoring.
If you want genetic diversity indicators that capture the resilience of life on Earth, this is the workshop to join!

The high seas are essential for achieving the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), especially Target 3 on conserving 30% of the ocean through protected areas and other effective measures. This workshop examines how the UN BBNJ Agreement can help deliver on GBF commitments by addressing two central approaches for areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ): dynamic Area-Based Management Tools (ABMTs), crucial for responding to climate-driven species shifts, and Other Effective Conservation Measures (OECMs), which are often more practical and adaptable than traditional MPAs.

Building on the CBD’s Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs), discussions will explore how these scientific inputs can guide ABMT and OECM development while strengthening synergies across regional and sectoral organizations (e.g. OSPAR, ISA, RFMOs). In doing so, the workshop links directly to GBF Targets 1, 2, and 10 on restoring and safeguarding ecosystems and Target 20 on effective cross-sectoral planning.

The session will bring together scientists, legal experts, and stakeholders to share insights and generate co-developed recommendations. By aligning effective governance tools with GBF objectives, the workshop seeks to advance practical solutions for protecting biodiversity in ABNJ and supports the WBF 2026 theme “Leading Transformation Together.”

We will:
- Explore ABMT design for shifting species under Targets 3 and 10
- Assess OECMs as complementary pathways to deliver Targets 2 and 3
- Identify opportunities for coordination using EBSAs to meet Target 20
- Facilitate dialogue to produce actionable recommendations for GBF-aligned ocean governance

This workshop will focus on advancing the Global Biodiversity Observing System (GBiOS) — an initiative of GEO BON designed to underpin the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) by enabling coordinated, sustained, and policy-relevant biodiversity observations worldwide. GBiOS aims to bridge the gap between data collection, integration, and decision-making by establishing a global, interoperable infrastructure for biodiversity monitoring to support national reporting and progress tracking toward GBF targets. Building on major workshops held at the World Biodiversity Forum (2022, 2024) and the recent BIOSPACE25 Conference, this hands-on workshop will move the GBiOS vision into a dialogue defining pathways for implementation in direct alignment with GBF monitoring needs.

This workshop will focus on the following dimensions essential to implementation:
• Governance Models – Developing co-governance structures for GBiOS that balance global coordination and national ownership.
• Financing Mechanisms – Exploring viable long-term, diversified, and inclusive funding pathways, linked to GBF resource mobilization.
• Scaling BONs – Co-developing blueprints to expand and support Biodiversity Observation Networks (BONs) and mobilize interoperable data connected to GBF indicators as foundational elements of GBiOS.

Goals
1. Explore the development of core standards and strategies for mobilizing data
2. Explore co-governance structures and stakeholder roles for GBiOS
3. Explore and document financing models (e.g., UN-backed funds, TNFD-aligned mechanisms).
4. Co-develop practical guidelines for scaling and supporting BONs.
5. Draft a GBiOS Implementation Roadmap (2026–2030) with key milestones and partnerships for 2030

A key goal of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is to restore 30% of degraded ecosystems globally by 2030. In line with this, the EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL), in force since 2024, requires effective restoration measures on at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea by 2030. To achieve this, Member States are developing the national restoration plans (NRPs) detailing how NRL targets will be met. A first draft, using the EU template, is due by early 2026. After a formal consultation phase, the revised draft must be submitted to the European Commission in September 2026. This process demands coordination across governance levels, stakeholder and public involvement, financial support, and robust monitoring and evaluation systems.

Genomics offers robust, scalable tools to track biodiversity change, yet genomic indicators remain underused in national monitoring and the GBF framework. This workshop tackles the gap between scientific readiness and policy uptake. We will identify where genomics strengthens Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) and Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), how to align these indicators across borders, and what is needed to make them operational.

Duration 2 × 90‑min, AM +PM

Aims
Identify the added value of genomics in estimation and use of EBVs and EOVs that goes beyond country borders
Map existing and emerging genomics-based EBVs and EOVs to GBF targets for species, genomics, and ecosystem integrity, supporting targets  2, 3, 4, and 12
Identify technical, legal, capacity, and any other barriers to integrating genomic indicators into national monitoring and reporting
Design a roadmap linking (meta)data standards, FAIR repositories, best data management practices, and funding to encourage uptake of genomics so data guides decisions

Format
Lightning talks of max 10 minutes, followed by breakout tables on measurement, infrastructure, policy uptake, and equity, concluding with a plenary synthesis using real‑time polling (30/1h)

Expected Outcomes
Workshop report for the GBF monitoring framework secretariat (archived on Zenodo)
Draft outline of a perspective article on the important steps to be taken to ensure the uptake of genomics-enabled indicators for biodiversity targets

We welcome participants from research, government, conservation NGOs, business/finance, and IPLCs. No abstract submission is required. We will ensure diversity in gender, career stage, and geographic representation and will advertise the event widely.

Mainstreaming biodiversity: implementing the GBF commitment into your company strategy (and make it work)

By Naturalis Biodiversity Center and Philips

Content of the session
Mainstreaming Biodiversity is a core element in the GBF (see targets 14-23). At the same time, the term is poorly understood, let alone that companies have specific tools, targets, and strategies on it, neither in their own organization nor across their value chain.

This workshop aims to:
1. Explain the term mainstreaming biodiversity (making the extraordinary ordinary) --> Naturalis
2. Explore challenges and opportunities for mainstreaming biodiversity in organizational contexts (e.g. standardizing biodiversity assessments, metrics in different regional contexts --> Philips
3. Reflect how mainstreaming barriers can be overcome with the audience --> both

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.

We are a team at the University of Oxford, working in collaboration with WWF to lead ‘NATURE Impacts’, a new initiative to assess national progress towards achieving the Global Biodiversity Framework’s mission for ‘halting and reversing nature loss by 2030’.

This forward-looking framework builds on existing trackers of global progress and aims to prioritise future national action to maximise impact for nature recovery. Over the longer term, it seeks to build an evidence-based, dynamic picture of opportunities to accelerate progress and increase ambition for global nature recovery. By leveraging existing datasets and engaging a broad range of stakeholders experienced with national-level conservation and contexts, ‘NATURE Impacts’ aims to evaluate national progress towards global goals whilst driving significant, effective societal outcomes.

We would be interested in leading a workshop, where we would share our vision with the global conservation community to gather feedback and help shape development of the ‘NATURE Impacts’ framework. In the session, we would introduce our proposed framework, highlighting its potential to evolve into a dynamic platform that identifies new challenges, opportunities, and solutions for positive change, and incorporates vital input from sub-national citizen groups, indigenous peoples, community groups and other key stakeholders. Participants would provide feedback on framework features, inclusivity, and engagement strategies, helping to identify gaps in commitments, ambition, and implementation, which would help inform future iterations of the framework.

Target 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework includes eliminating, phasing out, and reforming subsidies harmful to biodiversity by 2030. The WTO’s Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies will likely enter into force soon and will be an important regulatory addition to operationalizing this target. The WTO Agreement was adopted in 2022 to tackle harmful fisheries subsidies, including those subsidies that go to illegal, unreported, or unregulated (IUU) fishing, the fishing of overfished stocks, and fishing in the unregulated high seas. As of August 2025 it only needs three more ratifications to enter into force. Meanwhile, negotiations are ongoing to create new rules to curb the subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity more broadly. This session will detail the importance of the WTO Agreement to biodiversity and what next steps the world can take to ensure the Agreement is implemented and finalized, especially in the lead up to the WTO’s Ministerial Conference in March 2026. (Potential conveners could include the International Institute for Sustainble Development, and the Stop Funding Overfishing Coalition)

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), a global agreement to protect and restore the planet’s biodiversity and ecosystem services, outlines four long-term goals to be achieved by 2050. Goal A is centered on protection and restoration of natural ecosystems, whereas Goal B emphasizes the sustainable use of nature and ecosystem services management. Despite known relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem function, and ecosystem services, it is difficult to account for these connections at large spatial and temporal scales. It is therefore challenging to develop indicators to monitor changes in ecosystem functions and services from data sources currently available, although there have been recent advances. This session will forge stronger links between Goals A and B of the GBF, which require appropriate indicators for harmonized modeling and policy responses. These links should explicitly address dependencies between retention of biological diversity (Goal A) and ecosystem services (Goal B). In addition to monitoring, projections of human and ecological futures that account for relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services could help inform decisions aimed at achieving the 2050 GBF goals. Presentations in this section could address recent advances towards modeling of these linkages either spatially or temporally. For example: What approaches can be used to develop linked indicators between goals A and B, based on historical relationships, or documenting current trends and future projections towards achieving the 2050 vision of “living in harmony with nature”? How can we monitor ecosystem service changes in a consistent way across the globe, especially when many service benefits are localized?

Achieving global biodiversity conservation targets requires massive spatial and temporal in-situ biodiversity data, which is still limited by the high cost and heavy workload of traditional sampling. In the past decade, environmental DNA (eDNA) has been widely used and become a standard method for aquatic biodiversity sampling. With high efficiency in data collection and processing, eDNA technology will be particularly helpful for biodiversity sampling in understudied areas, with the potential to promote the implementation of findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) sampling strategies. By compiling global eDNA databases following consistent protocols, scientists can analyze how the distribution of aquatic biodiversity at various levels (taxonomic, functional, genetic diversity) are attributable to drainage characteristics, climate and human impacts, and assess the spatial scale and magnitude of the land-water linkage of biodiversity across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, by combining with existing traditional biodiversity databases, the use of eDNA is expected to make an important contribution to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

In this session, we will bring together scientists and engineers that work on or are interested in eDNA technology and its potential applications in regional to global biodiversity sampling. We will explore how to leverage the growing wealth of eDNA database resources to advance biodiversity research on a broader scale and provide reference information for effective decision-making.