A central part of the Convention's work with subnational governments is turning voluntary local ambition into commitments that can be tracked and fed into national reporting. Two recognized platforms carry this function, and a recent integration connects them directly to the Convention's reporting system.
CitiesWithNature
Recognition. The Conference of the Parties recognized the platform in Decision 15/12, on the Plan of Action on Subnational Governments, Cities and Other Local Authorities for Biodiversity (2023–2030), as the place where cities monitor and report on their commitments to national and global targets.
How it works. CitiesWithNature is run by ICLEI, with IUCN and The Nature Conservancy as co-founders. The platform launched at the ICLEI World Congress in Montreal in June 2018, so that cities and local governments could make and register voluntary commitments, set targets, track progress and exchange information.
RegionsWithNature
The counterpart for regions. Also recognized by Decision 15/12, RegionsWithNature serves regional and subnational governments. It is delivered in partnership with Regions4, ICLEI, the European Committee of the Regions and IUCN.
Since December 2022 it has become the mechanism for tracking subnational commitments to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Integration with the Clearing-House Mechanism
What changed in 2025. Since 30 November 2025, under Decision 16/32 and its Annex II, data from CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature feeds automatically into the CBD Clearing-House Mechanism.
How a commitment travels. When a city or region submits or updates a commitment, it flows into that country's national dashboard. The national government then has four weeks to accept or decline it as part of official progress towards the Framework. This integration is what turns a voluntary local pledge into data that national reporting can recognize.
Related
Subnational and local biodiversity strategies and action plans are compiled separately. See Subnational and Local Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans and the Convention's pages on National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans.
