Is the world delivering on commitments to meet people's needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing?

Targets 9-13: Meeting people's needs

Biodiversity supports people’s lives in countless ways, from providing food and livelihoods to clean water, healthy soils and protection from floods and other hazards. Ensuring biodiversity is sustainably used and the benefits it provides are maintained and shared fairly is fundamental to both people and biodiversity. 

Targets 9-13 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework focus on meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing. They include commitments to manage wild species sustainably; ensure biodiversity and sustainability in agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry; restore, maintain and enhance nature’s contributions to people; enhance green spaces and urban planning for human well-being and biodiversity; and increase the sharing of benefits from genetic resources, Digital Sequence Information and traditional knowledge. 

There are positive signs countries are putting these commitments into practice. For example, almost half of Parties report having fully established legal instruments or administrative measures for the sustainable use of wild species. Of the 23 Parties reporting annual changes in forest area, 68 per cent reported increases while available data also point to improving trends in sustainable agriculture. A majority of Parties also have national targets addressing specific benefits people receive from ecosystems, including soil health, pollination, reducing disease risk and protection from natural hazards.  

Despite signs of progress, countries themselves report they are not moving fast enough. Only around a third of national targets on the sustainable use of wild species and urban green and blue spaces are self-assessed as on track by Parties. The figure rises to 43 per cent for access and benefit-sharing while nearly two thirds of national targets on nature’s contributions to people are reported as making insufficient progress.  

Another challenge is that the people who depend most directly on biodiversity are not yet consistently reflected in national action. While around three quarters of Parties report measures to protect and encourage customary sustainable use by indigenous peoples and local communities, fewer than half include it in national targets. Even fewer, 38 per cent, have set national targets lined to benefits for people in vulnerable situations and those most dependent on biodiversity.  

Gaps in monitoring results also make it difficult to know whether progress is being made. There is not yet enough data to determine whether urban green and blue spaces are increasing, while limited reporting makes it difficult to know whether the contributions ecosystems make to people are being maintained or enhanced. 

Additionally, about half of Parties do not track the benefits people receive from the sustainable use of wild species. And despite progress in establishing systems for access and benefit-sharing, very few Parties report data showing the benefits being shared.  

There is action happening across all five targets but also significant gaps in implementation. With less than five years to 2030, closing these gaps will be essential to ensuring biodiversity continues to support people’s lives and livelihoods while the benefits from its use are shared fairly and equitably.  

Complete findings and assessment of progress across Targets 9-13 will be available in the forthcoming global report, State of Biodiversity Action.