The Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is an international strategic framework for conserving biodiversity, using its components sustainably, and sharing benefits from genetic resources fairly and equitably. Adopted on 19 December 2022 by the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), it establishes four long-term goals for 2050 and 23 action targets for 2030. Its mission is to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, placing nature on a recovery pathway while supporting sustainable development. (cbd.int)
Origins and institutional status
The framework follows the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets. It responds to evidence of continuing biodiversity decline, including assessments by IPBES, and seeks to address shortcomings in earlier implementation. It is also aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. (cbd.int)
Its name reflects the two locations of COP15. The first part took place in Kunming, China, in October 2021; the second convened in Montreal, Canada, in December 2022, under China’s presidency. The framework was adopted through CBD decision 15/4 as the strategic plan for implementing the Convention and its protocols during 2022–2030, rather than as a separate treaty. Companion decisions address monitoring, reporting, finance, scientific cooperation, and benefit-sharing. (cbd.int)
Four goals for 2050
The framework retains the CBD’s vision of humanity living in harmony with nature by 2050. Its four goals connect ecological outcomes with sustainable use and implementation resources:
- Goal A: Maintain, enhance, or restore the integrity, connectivity, and resilience of all ecosystems; substantially increase natural ecosystem area; halt human-induced extinction of known threatened species; and reduce extinction rate and risk tenfold by 2050. It also requires maintaining genetic diversity within wild and domesticated populations.
- Goal B: Use and manage biodiversity sustainably, while valuing, maintaining, and enhancing nature’s contributions to people, including ecosystem services.
- Goal C: Share monetary and non-monetary benefits from genetic resources, associated traditional knowledge, and digital sequence information fairly and equitably.
- Goal D: Secure adequate finance, capacity, technology, and scientific cooperation, progressively closing an estimated biodiversity financing gap of US$700 billion annually. (cbd.int)
Conservation and restoration targets
The 23 targets translate these goals into action for 2030. Target 1 calls for biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning or effective management processes across all areas, bringing the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance close to zero. Target 2 requires at least 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland-water, coastal, and marine ecosystems to be under effective restoration. This specifies areas undergoing restoration, not necessarily areas already fully restored. (cbd.int)
Target 3, commonly associated with “30 by 30”, requires effective conservation and management of at least 30% of terrestrial and inland-water areas, and coastal and marine areas. It encompasses protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, recognizing Indigenous and traditional territories where applicable. Area coverage alone is insufficient: conservation systems must be ecologically representative, connected, and equitably governed. Sustainable use may occur where consistent with conservation outcomes. (cbd.int)
Other targets address species recovery, sustainable harvesting, and invasive alien species. Target 6 seeks to reduce rates of introduction and establishment of invasive alien species by at least 50%. Target 7 requires halving excess nutrient losses and the overall risk from pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals—not simply halving pesticide quantities—and working towards eliminating plastic pollution. Target 8 addresses climate change impacts and ocean acidification, while minimizing harmful effects of climate action on biodiversity. (cbd.int)
Economic integration and finance
The framework extends beyond designated conservation areas. It addresses biodiversity-friendly agriculture, fisheries, forestry, urban spaces, and consumption. Target 14 calls for integrating biodiversity into policy, planning, development processes, environmental assessments, and, where appropriate, national accounting. Target 15 calls for measures enabling businesses to assess and disclose biodiversity-related risks, dependencies, and impacts, particularly large and transnational companies and financial institutions. (cbd.int)
Target 18 requires identifying harmful incentives by 2025 and eliminating, phasing out, or reforming them, including subsidies, while reducing them by at least US$500 billion annually by 2030. Target 19 seeks at least US$200 billion per year from all sources by 2030. Within that total, specified international financial flows to developing countries were targeted to reach US$20 billion annually by 2025 and US$30 billion by 2030. These are agreed financing targets, not statements that the amounts have been delivered. (cbd.int)
Rights and benefit-sharing
Implementation is guided by a human-rights-based approach. The framework recognizes the contributions of Indigenous peoples and local communities, requiring respect for their rights, traditional knowledge, and participation. Targets 22 and 23 address inclusive decision-making, access to information and justice, protection of environmental human-rights defenders, and gender equality. (cbd.int)
Target 13 addresses access and benefit-sharing, including benefits arising from digital sequence information on genetic resources. COP16 operationalized a multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism that includes the Cali Fund, launched in Rome in February 2025 to receive contributions from commercial users of such information. (cbd.int)
Implementation and monitoring
Parties translate the framework into national biodiversity strategies and action plans and national targets. Reporting and review mechanisms track national action and collective progress; the global targets are implemented with regard to national circumstances and capacities. (cbd.int)
At COP16’s resumed session in Rome in February 2025, parties finalized the monitoring framework, agreed reporting and review arrangements, and adopted a resource-mobilization strategy. Common indicators provide measures for assessing progress across the four goals and 23 targets, with a global review of collective implementation arranged for COP17. (cbd.int)