This report explores the potential to reform decision-making within the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and implement its most recent major framework, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). Focusing on developments in the 2020s, it identifies various challenges to democracy, effectiveness, and robustness within the CBD.
The 1992 CBD is the landmark multilateral legal instrument for the “conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources” (CBD 1992, Article 1). Ratified by 196 countries, the CBD came into force in 1993. Its main decision-making body is the Conference of the Parties (COP). The COPs have devised various action plans to fulfil the CBD’s objectives. In 2010, the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 was adopted to implement action on biodiversity through its 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets. It saw limited success, with only six of its targets partially achieved (CBD Secretariat 2020a, 10).
This paved the way for the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), which heightened international ambition to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. It includes 23 targets to be achieved by 2030 and a further four long-term goals by 2050, namely to protect and restore, to prosper with nature, to share benefits fairly, and to invest and collaborate (CBD 2022). Yet global biodiversity action faces ongoing implementation challenges while the loss of biodiversity continues at an alarming rate (Diamond 1987; Leakey and Lewin 1995; Kolbert 2014; IBPES 2019). Many CBD parties fail to meet targets, investments, or even reporting requirements — casting doubt on the CBD’s effectiveness in delivering on its objectives. This is due to both a lack of adequate funding and an unwillingness on the part of governments to act decisively, in addition to insufficient capacity and technology transfer for developing countries.
While the overall reform potential within the CBD is limited, various informal steps can be taken to further improve the CBD process
Drawing on an extensive literature review, document analysis, and 12 interviews with stakeholders, this report explores the potential to reform the CBD, considering both decision-making and implementation processes. It focuses on the most recent developments in the 2020s, most notably the KMGBF’s adoption at COP15 (2021/2022) and its operationalisation at COP16 (2024/2025), which marked great strides in global biodiversity governance. In these CBD processes, four specific challenges and related reform ideas are particularly important to democracy, effectiveness, and robustness (see the ENSURED project’s conceptual framework, as outlined in Choi et al. 2024): the issue of how negotiations function, the question of enhanced participation for Indigenous Peoples, the effectiveness and robustness of the KMGBF’s new reporting process, and theeffectiveness and robustness of the CBD’s financial instruments.
This report finds that:
- While the overall reform potential within the CBD is limited, various informal steps can be taken to further improve the CBD process. These steps involve diverse trade-offs between effectiveness, robustness, and democracy.
- Despite the various challenges presented by geopolitics and polarisation, the CBD has proven relatively robust.
- In working towards the KMGBF’s 2030 targets, it will be crucial to maintain the KMGBF’s momentum, to upscale implementation and financial commitments, and to invest in trust-building among the parties.
Citation Recommendation: Petri, Franziska, Jayati Srivastava, Edith Drieskens, and Noa Lameire. 2025. “Moving Global Biodiversity Governance Forward: How to Strengthen the CBD.” ENSURED Research Report, no. 17 (November): 1-39. https://www.ensuredeurope.eu.
Photo: UN Biodiversity/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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