In 2025, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) invited submission of views and information relating to the strategic review and analysis of the current Programme of work on protected areas (PowPA) in the context of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). Toward improving the PowPA and better supporting national implementation of the KMGBF, increasing implementation and emphasis on ecological connectivity is a key unifying axis for achieving multiple environmental, social, and economic priorities across multilateral environmental agreements and decision-making fora. This importance was emphasized during the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS/CoP-15), which was convened under the theme “Connecting Nature to Sustain Life” where the High-level Segment adopted the Pantanal Declaration "Promoting Connectivity to Protect Migratory Wildlife". The meeting advanced an agenda on ecological connectivity, recognizing it as essential for sustaining migratory wildlife, maintaining habitats and migration routes across borders, and supporting initiatives to increase coordinated conservation efforts. Additionally, commitments and actions for ecological connectivity are increasingly being aligned across other international processes, including the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, the Man and the Biosphere Programme of UNESCO, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Ecological connectivity is fundamental to the achievement of the objectives of the CBD, as it enables the movement of species, the flow of genes and ecological processes, and the maintenance of ecosystem integrity across terrestrial, aerial, inland water, coastal and marine systems. It is also crucial for adaptation of species across landscapes and seascapes as climate change is increasingly becoming a major source of biodiversity loss and threatening species with extinction. However, landscapes and seascapes are fragmented in many regions of the world and protected and conserved areas (PCAs) have become increasingly isolated and subjected to genetic erosion and species loss. Therefore, maintaining, enhancing, and restoring ecological connectivity is an essential strategy for biodiversity conservation now and into the future. In an increasingly fragmented world,  PCAs that function in isolation are insufficient to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. This is evidenced by one estimate in the latest Protected Planet Report from the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) and IUCN that much more progress needs to be made toward achieving the “well-connected” element of Target 3 of the KMGBF; as only approximately 8.5 percent of the world’s terrestrial surface is currently both protected and connected.

Ecological connectivity is therefore a determining condition for achieving both the KMGBF’s 2030 Targets and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity. Some progress is being made to better integrate it in CBD National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). For example, an analysis by the Center for Large Landscape Conservation and IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas’ Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group reveals that, as of January 2026 there were at least 45 Parties that submitted plans containing the terms “ecological connectivity", “ecological corridors”, or “ecological networks” and/or specific objectives for maintaining, enhancing, and restoring connectivity including through mitigation of the impacts of linear transport infrastructure [See https://conservationcorridor.org/wp-content/uploads/Connectivity-in-Updated-NBSAPs.pdf].

The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) has led the way consolidating ecological connectivity as a central pillar for achieving its aims, as reflected in resolutions and decisions adopted by the Conference of the Parties. These include the adoption of an agreed definition, the Samarkand Strategic Plan for Migratory Species, the Campo Grande resolution on Ecological Connectivity – urging Parties to identify and strengthen ecological networks and corridors, and the Global Partnership on Ecological Connectivity (GPEC) that is a collaborative platform to support implementation, knowledge exchange, and coordinated action among Parties and partner organizations, which has been endorsed by the EU “as a vital platform for collective action and urge continued resource mobilization to address implementation gaps”.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has also advanced collective understanding of ecological connectivity along with more concrete policy and implementation. This includes the publication of “Guidelines for conserving connectivity through ecological networks and corridors” and adoption of Resolution WCC-2025-Res-126 "Recognising and reporting ecological corridors” that inter alia “CALLS ON the Director General, the Secretariat, Commissions, and Members to a. recognise the value of, and advocate for, a multilaterally agreed definition and frameworks for ecological corridors as a spatially explicit conservation measure [...]”.

These developments underscore the need for more coherent and coordinated action across conventions and recognition that ecological connectivity is essential for maintaining functional migratory corridors and flyways, reducing habitat fragmentation, and enhancing ecosystem resilience under climate change.This can be done by updating the PowPA to more comprehensively address ecological connectivity across its four programme elements While it already highlighted the importance of promoting regional cooperation under CMS to link protected area networks across borders, including through migratory corridors for key species (Goal 1.3, supporting activity 1.3.7), the scale, complexity, cross‑cutting nature, and importance of ecological connectivity  warrants a dedicated programme element.

This side event will bring participants together to discuss incorporation of ecological connectivity in all current elements of any updates to the PowPA as well as to establish a new Programme Element 5 “Ecological Connectivity” to design and advance a more progressive PowPA and future framework. This new Programme Element 5 will provide an integrated framework to plan, cooperate, govern, enable, monitor, and strengthen ecological connectivity, while formalizing synergies especially between CBD and CMS, but also other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and decision-making fora to enhance more comprehensive implementation at national, regional, and transboundary levels.

For the purposes of this new Programme Element 5, ecological connectivity is understood in a manner consistent with the CMS, which defines ecological connectivity as “[...] the unimpeded movement of species, connection of habitats without hindrance and the flow of natural processes that sustain life on Earth” (CMS Resolution 14.16). Also, it considers that ecological connectivity encompasses both structural and functional dimensions, including the spatial configuration of ecological networks and corridors and their effectiveness in enabling species movement and ecological processes. This shared understanding reinforces coherence between CBD, CMS, and other MEAs and decision-making fora while supporting coordinated action across ecosystems and governance levels.

Overall, this side event will engage participants in considering the present and future of ecological connectivity conservation to meet multiple environmental commitments through collaboration across MEAs and other decision-making fora, opportunities for a more integrated PoWPA, and how ecological corridors, as an officially recognized spatially explicit conservation measure can amplify CBD’s efforts to implement the KMGBF across countries and sectors.