Inspiration from the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework for SDG 15

Abstract

With the United Nations’ Agenda 2030, countries worldwide have committed to a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. Among them is SDG 15, known as Life on Land. What makes this SDG special is that several of its targets had been scheduled for completion by 2020– raising the question what should happen to these targets after 2020 as they have not yet been achieved. With the approaching 2023 SDG Summit in mind, this perspective paper examines how the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was adopted under the Convention on Biological Diversity in late 2022, might provide guidance for the implementation of SDG 15 and maintain the momentum for action until 2030. Three areas are critical. First, concerning protected areas, the strengthened rights-based approach of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework should be integrated into SDG 15. Second, the new framework promotes the sustainable use of biodiversity more clearly than SDG 15 and should hence guide transformation of the biodiversity-based economic sectors. Finally, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework provides the first quantified financial target for global biodiversity action, and at the SDG Summit, that target should be reinforced by additional financial commitments. Guidance in these three areas can be integrated into the SDG Summit’s Political Declaration and into the voluntary pledges that countries are expected to make at the Summit, and it can inform the review of the SDG indicators.