Progress Towards Protected Area Targets
Protected Area targets have been set globally, regionally, and sometimes at a country level. During the last decade, the global protected area targets that all country signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) committed to were the CBD's Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Specifically, Aichi Target 11 which stated that:
A Policy Analysis of Biodiversity Offsetting: Benchmarking Against International Best Practice Principles
Given global threats to biodiversity, implementing effective biodiversity offset policies is increasingly recognised as being essential for delivering sustainable development. As research and practice on offsets has developed, so have international expectations of best practice principles, which set the benchmark for national systems in their efforts to protect biodiversity.
The Conservation World Has a Longevity Problem We Rarely Talk About
COP30 has come and gone, leaving behind a familiar mix of new commitments and renewed political promises. But amid the declarations of progress, one issue that received almost backhanded attention is the quiet abandonment of conservation projects after their high-profile launches.
Protected areas expanding fast but failing to halt nature loss, studies warn
New research suggests that the rapid expansion of protected areas worldwide is giving a misleading picture of progress, with biodiversity continuing to decline inside many sites designated for protection.
The State of International 30x30 Funding report released December 2025 has called for a fundamental shift in how conservation is financed, urging governments and donors to prioritise long-term, predictable funding for management, enforcement and restoration.
Protected area management has significant spillover effects on vegetation
The Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for rapid global expansion of protected areas in response to ongoing biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation1. One of its strongest selling points is the benefits protected areas provide to adjacent human communities2,3. However, little attention has been paid to how policy and management can support such benefits.
Five key opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of area-based marine conservation
Effective area-based conservation is central in global efforts to reverse marine biodiversity loss and safeguard ecosystem functioning. Here, we identify five key opportunities to maximize conservation potential as nations progress towards the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2030 area-based management targets. These include enhancing accountability, elevating conservation in spatial planning, implementing adaptive management, coordinating conservation efforts across scales, and reconciling design with expected outcomes.
Twenty-five years of misinterpreting the biodiversity hotspot approach
A quarter of a century after its publication, the biodiversity hotspot concept remains one of the most cited and influential frameworks in conservation science. But its real-world impact is poorly documented in peer-reviewed literature, which hinders the development of new approaches for prioritizing conservation action.
OTHER EFFECTIVE AREA-BASED CONSERVATION MEASURES
Area-based conservation has long been a cornerstone of efforts to conserve species and habitats, safeguard and enhance nature’s contributions to people, 1and improve the resilience of land and seascapes to climate change (Zeng et al. 2022; Brodie et al. 2023; Duncanson et al. 2023; Nowakowski et al. 2023; Cannizzo et al. 2024).
A horizon scan of biological conservation issues for 2026
We present outcomes from our 17th horizon scan of issues potentially impacting global biodiversity conservation in the next decade. Issues are novel, or represent a significant step-change in impact, and are currently not well-known or understood within the conservation community. Our panel of 26 scientists, practitioners, and policymakers scored an initial list of 96 issues, discussed the highest ranked 35 issues at a workshop, and identified the 15 top-ranked issues.
