Nearly three years after a landmark global agreement was struck to halt and reverse the destruction of the natural world, 58% of nations have officially met a United Nations call to submit comprehensive new pledges on addressing nature loss.
According to a fresh analysis by Carbon Brief, 113 countries have now come forward with national biodiversity strategies and action plans, known as NBSAPs. This represents a significant increase from just 55 nations that had submitted their strategies a year ago, and marks a major pivot from the slow pace that characterized the initial deadlines established by the UN.
The milestone arrives just as delegates and government officials prepare to gather in Yerevan, Armenia, for the upcoming COP17 biodiversity summit. The conference marks the critical halfway point of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a sweeping agreement adopted by nearly every country in Montreal, Canada, in December 2022 with the ultimate mission of halting and reversing biodiversity decline by 2030.
The upcoming summit in Armenia will serve as the stage for the first comprehensive global review of how countries are progressing toward meeting the expansive targets of the framework. Central to this evaluation will be a UN-coordinated global report, which draws directly from the newly submitted NBSAPs, national targets, and seventh national reports that countries were required to produce.
The Slow Road to Compliance and the Push at COP16
The journey toward widespread international compliance has been fraught with delays. Under the original schedule established during the creation of the Kunming-Montreal framework, countries were asked to submit their updated NBSAPs by the start of the COP16 biodiversity summit, which took place in Cali, Colombia, in October 2024.
However, when that deadline arrived, only 15% of nations had managed to publish their strategies. The sluggish response prompted urgent negotiations in Cali, resulting in a newly agreed text that strongly "urged" governments to release their NBSAPs as soon as possible. Following that diplomatic push, momentum began to build, with the number of compliant nations steadily climbing over the subsequent two years from 55 to the current total of 113.
Despite the recent acceleration, compliance remains uneven across different regions and economic blocs. A notable surge in submissions has come from African nations over the past year. Countries across the continent—including Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—have all successfully released their updated plans.
Similar progress has been observed in South America. Brazil, recognized globally as the most biodiverse nation on Earth, has published its new NBSAP alongside neighbors Belize and Chile. Meanwhile, COP17 host nation Armenia released its strategic biodiversity plan in April.
Alternative Submissions and Megadiverse Gaps
Recognizing that administrative and technical hurdles would prevent some governments from completing full-scale action plans ahead of the original deadlines, the UN framework permitted nations that were not in a position to finalize their NBSAPs to submit standalone national targets instead.
Unlike comprehensive NBSAPs, which include detailed operational plans for how biodiversity goals will be achieved, national targets simply outline the specific environmental milestones a government aims to reach. By the close of COP16, approximately 119 parties had produced at least one national target. Over the past two years, that figure has expanded significantly, rising to 175 countries, which accounts for roughly 89% of the global community.
Similarly, participation has grown regarding mandatory national reporting. While only about half of countries met the initial February deadline to produce their seventh national reports, that compliance rate has since climbed to 73% of nations worldwide.
Yet, glaring gaps remain, particularly among some of the planet’s most critical ecological regions. Four of the world’s officially designated megadiverse nations—countries that collectively harbor the vast majority of Earth’s plant and animal species—have not yet published new NBSAPs. This group includes Papua New Guinea, Peru, South Africa, and the United States.
The absence of the United States carries unique diplomatic implications, as it remains the only UN member country that is not a signatory to the underlying UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Additionally, Russia, which encompasses the largest land area on Earth, has also failed to produce a new NBSAP.
Financial Hurdles and Institutional Support
Throughout the implementation phase of the Kunming-Montreal framework, numerous developing nations have voiced deep concerns that a severe lack of financial resources has directly hindered their ability to draft, finalize, and publish comprehensive NBSAPs. Developing economies frequently argue that protecting natural habitats, managing protected areas, and designing robust national strategies require technical and financial capacities that are difficult to mobilize domestically.
To address these barriers, multilateral funding mechanisms have attempted to streamline access to resources. The Global Environment Facility, the primary multilateral fund tasked with assisting nations in preparing their biodiversity strategies, reported that 120 out of 139 developing countries that requested financial support following COP16 have successfully accessed the necessary funds.
Furthermore, representatives from the UN Environment Programme have indicated that international bodies are actively working to resolve outstanding administrative and technical bottlenecks to ensure that the remaining 19 countries can secure the financial assistance required to finalize their national commitments.
As representatives prepare to travel to Yerevan for COP17, the focus will inevitably shift from the bureaucratic process of gathering paperwork to a rigorous assessment of whether the collective ambitions laid out in the 113 NBSAPs and 175 sets of national targets are sufficient to alter the trajectory of global biodiversity before the 2030 deadline.
