The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has today released our latest Impact Report showcasing the Centre’s work in 2022-2023.  

The report celebrates UNEP-WCMC’s recent achievements with partners in tackling the global nature crisis. Key among these is the critical role of our policy and technical experts in supporting the agreement of the most ambitious global plan for nature ever adopted: the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and related package of decisions. 

After four years of negotiations, in December 2022 this new global plan for nature was finalised by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at the UN Biodiversity Conference, setting out a series of international targets to achieve the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity and to ensure the availability of finances for nature. Countries will now deliver their contributions to this global plan. UNEP-WCMC’s input included supporting negotiators and providing technical guidance to the UN at the highest levels, and we are now busy helping governments, businesses and financial institutions and conservation and development partners around the world to take on board and deliver the GBF. 

UNEP-WCMC’s deep knowledge across the scope of the Global Biodiversity Framework means we are extremely well placed to catalyse the necessary transformations to achieve its ambitions.

As we enter this period of implementation, we are collaborating ever more closely with our partners across public and private sectors. Working together, we will invest in innovation and scale up delivery to support the world in translating commitments into action.

Neville Ash, UNEP-WCMC Director

Our efforts at UNEP-WCMC are geared towards supporting partners to understand and act on the state of nature, opportunities for change and possible future outcomes – in line with our mission to develop knowledge and capacity for a nature-positive world, and the vision of a world where humanity is living in harmony with nature.

The Impact Report 2022-23 highlights our activities under UNEP-WCMC’s organisational strategy – showcasing major successes from our seven Impact and Innovation Areas, as well as displaying the interrelations between these workstreams.  

Delivery of our strategy depends upon working collaboratively within our organisation and beyond. This collaborative culture can be seen in all our work, including in the cross-organizational approach we took to supporting adoption of the Kunming-Montreal package of decisions, and our engagement with partners worldwide.

Jonny Hughes, WCMC Chief Executive Officer and UNEP-WCMC Senior Representative

Further highlights from 2022-23 included our work on species conservation, where our scientific input to negotiations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) helped increase protections for 223 animal and plant species. We also co-authored the first ever CITES World Wildlife Trade Report, and created a tool that visualises all legal, international trade in CITES-listed wildlife and wildlife products.

We provided technical and scientific expertise to underpin the proposal for the ground-breaking EU Nature Restoration Law, which was passed in July 2023. Meanwhile, our modelling experts provided China with projections on how various nature policy pathways will impact the country’s wildlife and its people, and our National Ecosystem Assessment Initiative team helped Ethiopia and Cameroon publish comprehensive assessments to inform national policies.

In catalysing private sector action, we played a critical role supporting the work of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) – a major initiative to drive business understanding and action for nature. As a key knowledge partner, we supported development of TNFD’s disclosure framework, advising on the business and biodiversity data landscape and providing new insight into business readiness for disclosure on nature-related risk.

With just seven years remaining to achieve the ambitions of the GBF and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, UNEP-WCMC now looks forward to continuing our vital work throughout 2023-24 and beyond, providing critical science, tools and guidance to support our national, private sector and other partners move from agreement to action for nature and people. 

Visit our new Impact Report website.

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