Too few countries on track to restore nature by 2030, unveils WWF new country tracker

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WWF launches new tracker of national biodiversity plans to help policymakers, businesses and civil society follow progress on key global nature framework;

· At the time of launch of the tracker, only 10% of countries have submitted their updated plans and another 33% have only updated their national targets; 

· Most prevalent shortcomings of country plans include lack of finance to back the plans, inadequate actions to address the drivers of nature loss, and insufficient government-wide engagement;

· The fact that only a small number of countries have fulfilled their obligation is a worrying sign. WWF urges countries to stick to their promise and submit revised national plans to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, ahead of the UN biodiversity conference in Colombia.  

GLAND, Switzerland (30 September 2024) – A review of countries’ National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) by WWF, has revealed that the majority of countries are not fully honoring their commitments to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030.

Almost two years ago at the last UN biodiversity conference in Montreal, 196 countries adopted the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. In a first step to implementing the landmark agreement, countries pledged to submit revised national action plans by the subsequent meeting – COP16 – in Cali, Colombia. With the conference only weeks away, and just over 20 revised NBSAPs and around 60 revised national targets published, WWF has serious concerns about the low number of submissions to date, and with the quality of those that have been submitted.

“We know change isn’t easy and countries are facing challenges such as a lack of funding, insufficient data and political instability, but there is a worrying gap between what was promised in Montreal, and the plans put in place so far to reverse the loss of nature by 2030,” says WWF’s Head of Global Advocacy, Bernadette Fischler Hooper. “National strategies are a country’s blueprint for restoring nature and building better lives and futures for their nations. WWF urges countries who haven’t done so, to start revising their national biodiversity planning, and to those who have – to speed up the delivery of those targets as well as stepping up support to other countries,” adds Fischler Hooper.

With only 10% of countries having submitted national plans since COP15, WWF’s NBSAP Tracker also assesses national targets published by 33% of countries. The fact that only a small number of countries have fulfilled their obligation is a worrying sign.

“There are various reasons for these poor results,” explains Fischler Hooper. “Lack of ambition to do the revisions is one, but other countries just don’t have the resources. It is, however, encouraging to see some strong national plans and targets with clear actions, though most still lack sufficient funding for implementation,” Fischler Hooper adds.”

When it comes to the quality of the plans that have been published, many seem to omit clear and consistent ways of measuring progress. Without this, we could see a lack of accountability during the implementation of plans – which was one of the key failings of the Aichi Targets from 2011-2020.