Nations Lag Far Behind on 30x30 Biodiversity Goal, Research Finds
Research shows countries are far from the 30% protection goal for land and seas by 2030, with funding gaps and uneven progress.
Governments are significantly off track to meet a key United Nations goal of protecting at least 30% of the world's land and oceans by 2030, according to research released on Wednesday.
Under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed in late 2022, nearly 200 countries endorsed the "30 by 30" target and committed to raising at least $200 billion annually to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
Since the pact took effect, an additional 1.3 million square kilometres of land and 6 million square kilometres of marine areas have been formally protected. Yet overall coverage remains only 20% for land and 10% for oceans, the research by environmental groups led by the US-based Campaign for Nature found.
These findings align with an official progress report due to be presented at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia, next month. A draft released in July cautioned that none of the agreement's 23 targets would be met by 2030 unless implementation accelerates rapidly.
"Progress is being made clearly, but it is uneven, and it is clearly also not at the pace and scale required to achieve the Framework's 23 targets by 2030," said Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the UNCBD, at a briefing this month.
The Campaign for Nature report estimated that if all existing government pledges are fulfilled by 2030, about 26% of terrestrial and inland water areas would be protected, while only 13% of marine ecosystems would be covered.
Annual funding falls short by approximately $75 billion to $150 billion, with marine protection spending at just $1.8 billion, far below the $16 billion needed, the report said.
Even if the 30x30 targets are reached, the report stressed that more action is needed to ensure ecosystems are genuinely safeguarded. Of the 10% of the ocean currently under protection plans, only 3.5% is considered "effectively" protected.
"There's a significant gap between protection on paper and protection in practice. A line on a map does not mean protection in the water," said Pauli Merriman, senior director for oceans at WWF International.