YEREVAN, ARMENIA, October 23, 2026 — A new scientific paper published during the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD CoP17) calls on governments to prioritize Target 1 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, finding that achieving the world's ambitious biodiversity goals depends on putting nature at the center of decisions about how land, freshwater, and oceans are used.

The paper concludes that the ambitions and commitments of the Global Biodiversity Framework can only be achieved if countries prioritize Target 1 and align existing planning tools, policies, and approaches into coherent strategies capable of halting and reversing biodiversity loss.

WCS urges governments at CBD CoP17 to make Target 1 a central implementation priority, strengthen coordination across government sectors, and ensure that national planning decisions deliver measurable conservation outcomes. Achieving the Framework's ambitions will require countries to move beyond individual conservation commitments and put biodiversity at the center of decisions affecting land, freshwater, and oceans.

Target 1 calls on countries to ensure that all areas are under participatory, integrated, and biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning by 2030. The new paper finds that implementing this target is fundamental to achieving many of the Framework's other 22 targets, including restoring degraded ecosystems, ensuring ecological integrity, expanding effectively managed protected and conserved areas, preventing species extinctions, reducing threats to biodiversity, and ensuring the sustainable use of natural resources.

The paper, Biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning underpins the achievement of global biodiversity targets, was published October 20 in Nature Reviews Biodiversity. It includes two scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) among its international team of co-authors: Kendall R. Jones and Madhu Rao.

The authors conclude that Target 1 is not simply one of 23 separate biodiversity commitments. It provides a critical foundation for implementing the entire Global Biodiversity Framework. Without biodiversity-inclusive planning, efforts to protect species, restore ecosystems, establish protected areas, and sustainably manage natural resources risk being undermined by decisions about agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and other development activities.

Dr. Madhu Rao, Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and WCS Director of Protected and Conserved Areas, and a co-author of the paper, said:

"Target 1 provides the foundation for achieving the world's biodiversity goals. Governments cannot successfully protect species, restore ecosystems, or conserve important natural areas if decisions about land and ocean use continue to ignore biodiversity. Target 1 can help governments identify the most important places to protect, where restoration will have the greatest impact, and how to reduce threats to wildlife while meeting the needs of people.

"Protecting biodiversity requires us to think beyond the boundaries of individual protected areas and consider how entire landscapes and seascapes function. Forests, rivers, grasslands, wetlands, and oceans are interconnected, and decisions affecting one part of an ecosystem can have consequences far beyond it. Achieving the Global Biodiversity Framework requires coordinated planning across sectors, meaningful participation by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and the political will to put biodiversity at the center of national development decisions."

The paper calls for coordinated planning across conservation, agriculture, infrastructure, and other sectors to ensure that decisions about land and water use protect biodiversity rather than undermine efforts to restore ecosystems, conserve wildlife, and achieve global biodiversity targets.

Dr. Susan Lieberman, WCS Vice President for International Policy, said:

"Governments have committed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, but those goals cannot be achieved if nature remains an afterthought in decisions about how land and oceans are used. This new paper makes an important point: Target 1 is not simply one of 23 global biodiversity targets. It is fundamental to achieving the others.

"As governments meet at CBD CoP17, they must recognize that success depends on more than expanding protected areas or adopting new conservation plans. Countries must incorporate biodiversity into decisions about infrastructure, agriculture, energy, and other economic activities that affect wildlife and ecosystems. With only four years remaining until 2030, the priority must be implementation, accountability, and measurable results for nature."

The paper identifies challenges to implementing Target 1, including inadequate financing, gaps in biodiversity data, and insufficient coordination across government sectors. It emphasizes the need to address trade-offs between conservation and development while respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, including their right to free, prior, and informed consent. The authors urge countries to prioritize integrated biodiversity-inclusive planning, even if full implementation cannot be achieved by 2030.