The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework 2022
Chapter Thirty-Five
Syllabus topic 1, "Bio-diversity"
Pages 109 to 111 of 818
In one line
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is a decision of the Conference of the Parties, not a treaty, and its best known commitment is to protect thirty per cent of land and sea by 2030.
In exam wording: the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted in December 2022 by decision 15/4 of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its fifteenth meeting; it succeeds the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 to 2020 and its twenty Aichi Biodiversity Targets; it sets four long-term goals to 2050 and twenty-three action-oriented targets for 2030, of which Target 3 is the commitment that at least thirty per cent of terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas are effectively conserved and managed by 2030; and it is a decision of the Conference under article 23 of the Convention rather than an instrument creating binding obligations.
Why a framework and not a protocol
A protocol under article 28 of the Convention is a treaty. It has to be negotiated, signed, ratified and brought into force, and it binds only the Parties that ratify it. That takes years, and the two protocols the Convention has produced took eight and eighteen years respectively to be adopted.
A decision of the Conference of the Parties needs only agreement in the room. It cannot create a binding obligation, but it can set a target, allocate a duty to report against it, and change what a Party is measured by. That is what the Aichi Targets did and what the Kunming-Montreal Framework does.
The legal status is the point a student must get right: it is not law, and it is not enforceable, and it matters anyway.
What came before
The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 to 2020, adopted at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, carried twenty Aichi Biodiversity Targets. They were the first quantified global biodiversity targets. Assessment at the end of the period found that none of the twenty had been fully achieved globally, and that is the honest starting point for any evaluation of the successor framework.
The shape of the Framework
Four goals for 2050, expressed as outcomes: the integrity, connectivity and resilience of ecosystems maintained and restored and extinction of known threatened species halted; biodiversity sustainably used and managed and nature's contributions to people valued and safeguarded; benefits from the use of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge shared fairly and equitably; and adequate means of implementation secured and equitably accessible.
Twenty-three targets for 2030, of which the most cited are these.
Target 1, spatial planning covering all areas. Target 2, restoration of at least thirty per cent of degraded ecosystems. Target 3, at least thirty per cent of terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas effectively conserved and managed through protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, recognising indigenous and traditional territories. Target 5, use, harvesting and trade of wild species to be sustainable, safe and legal. Target 6, reduction of the introduction and establishment of invasive alien species. Target 13, measures to ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources, digital sequence information and associated traditional knowledge. Target 18, reform of incentives harmful to biodiversity. Target 19, mobilising financial resources.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework 2022
The Indian connection
Target 3 and the protected area network. India's protected areas are declared under sections 18, 26A, 35, 36A and 36C of the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972. Target 3 also recognises other effective area-based conservation measures, which is a category that can include a community reserve under section 36C or a biodiversity heritage site under section 37 of the Biological Diversity Act 2002.
Target 6 and invasive species. Section 62A of the 1972 Act, inserted in 2022, gives the Central Government power to regulate or prohibit the import, trade, possession or proliferation of an invasive alien species.
Target 13 and benefit sharing. Sections 3, 6, 7, 19 and 21 of the Biological Diversity Act 2002, with the Regulations of 2025.
Digital sequence information is a live question and a student should know what it is: genetic sequence data held in a database rather than as physical material. If a company can download a sequence and synthesise it, no physical resource crosses a border and the access machinery of the Convention and the Nagoya Protocol never engages. Target 13 names it, and the mechanism for sharing benefits from it is still being developed.
Worked example
A State wants to know what it must do to contribute to Target 3. Distinguish what is law from what is policy.
What is law. A sanctuary, national park, conservation reserve or community reserve exists only when the notification under the relevant section of the 1972 Act has issued and, for a sanctuary, when the rights have been settled and the final declaration made under section 26A. Until then the area is not a protected area, whatever a plan says.
What is policy. The target itself, the national biodiversity strategy and action plan required by article 6 of the Convention and section 36 of the 2002 Act, and any State plan under section 36B.
Where the two meet. Section 36(1) requires the Central Government to develop national strategies including measures for identification and monitoring of areas rich in biological resources and for promotion of in-situ conservation. Section 36B, inserted in 2023, requires a State Government to develop strategies and plans of its own. A target adopted at an international meeting reaches an Indian district through those provisions and not otherwise.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework 2022
The honest answer to a student's question. If asked in an examination whether the Framework binds India, say that it is a decision of the Conference of the Parties adopted under the Convention, that it does not create obligations enforceable against India in any tribunal, that India reports against it under article 26 of the Convention, and that its content reaches Indian law only when a statute or a notification is made to give effect to it.
Quick revision
- Adopted December 2022 by decision 15/4 of the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties.
- Successor to the Strategic Plan 2011 to 2020 and its twenty Aichi Targets, none of which was fully achieved globally.
- Four goals for 2050, twenty-three targets for 2030.
- Target 3 is the thirty per cent commitment for land, inland water, coastal and marine areas.
- Target 13 covers benefit sharing including digital sequence information.
- It is a decision, not a treaty. It binds nobody and is reported against under article 26.
Test yourself
1. What is the legal status of the Framework? It is a decision of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted under the Conference's power in article 23 to consider and undertake additional action required for the achievement of the Convention's purposes. It is not a treaty and creates no obligation enforceable against a Party.
2. What does Target 3 commit Parties to? Ensuring that by 2030 at least thirty per cent of terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions, are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, recognising indigenous and traditional territories.
3. Why is digital sequence information a problem for the access regime? Because the access machinery of article 15 of the Convention and of the Nagoya Protocol is triggered by obtaining a physical genetic resource. If the sequence is downloaded from a database and synthesised, nothing physical crosses a border, no prior informed consent is sought, and no benefit sharing obligation arises under the existing text.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.