This week it’s the UN Biodiversity Summit (CBD COP16) in Colombia. Governments, indigenous communities, businesses, academia, non-governmental organisations, and youth groups are meeting to discuss progress towards international biodiversity targets.
One of the important points of discussion is the Global Biodiversity Framework (also known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework or the GBF). It was agreed at the previous Biodiversity Summit, COP15, in December 2022. The GBF includes 4 goals and 23 targets, with a central mission of halting and reversing global biodiversity loss by 2030.
COP16 is the first opportunity since the GBF was agreed for governments to collectively review progress towards these targets and commitments.
30by30 target
Target 3 of the GBF aims to ensure that at least 30% of the Earth’s land and ocean is being effectively conserved and managed by 2030. This is known as the “30by30” target, and it’s vital to achieving the GBF’s mission.
I work in the 30by30 on land team at Defra. In my previous blog post, I explained how my team had been working with landowners, land managers and wider stakeholders to develop England’s approach to the vital 30by30 target.
The target doesn’t necessarily expect every country to protect 30% of its lands and seas. But, as a leading voice calling for a global 30by30 target, the UK Government committed to deliver this target nationally.
Delivering 30by30 on land in England means ensuring that our most important and wildlife-rich habitats are benefiting from effective, long-term conservation and management for nature. Achieving this target is essential to allow nature to recover, while also supporting wider objectives including cleaner rivers, lakes and seas, boosting food security, and protecting communities from the dangers of flooding.
I’m delighted that, today, the Government has taken an important step forward, by publishing our vision for 30by30 on land in England and confirming the criteria for land that can count towards the target.
This includes confirmation that Sites of Special Scientific Interest will only count towards 30by30 if they are in favourable or recovering condition.
The criteria draw on our work with farming groups, conservation organisations and wider partners. Today's announcement should provide a clear foundation for us to focus all our efforts on driving progress and meeting this target.
Next steps for 30by30
Work now continues to ensure we meet our target, using the confirmed criteria as our basis, and guided by our ambitious vision.
Over the coming weeks, my team will be working with a small number of partners to begin piloting the process for additional land to contribute to 30by30.
We’ll also begin developing an ambitious delivery strategy for 30by30 on land in England. This should confirm more detail on how we will achieve this target and will set out our pathway to 2030. We hope to finalise and publish this strategy next year.
This work will also help us to develop detailed guidance on how the 30by30 criteria should be interpreted and applied in practice, to provide further clarity for landowners and land managers. We also hope to publish that guidance next year.
Across all of this work, we look forward to continuing to work closely with stakeholders and partners across sectors. As our 30by30 vision sets out, achieving this target will require a collaborative approach, and everyone has an important role to play!
We cannot address the nature and climate crises without coordinated global action, so I look forward to following the key updates from COP16.
We will be issuing a series of posts after COP16 to talk to the outcomes and activities raised at the conference. If you’re interested in hearing about these and more environmental updates, please subscribe to receive an email notification whenever a blog is published.
14 comments
Comment by Angus Walker posted on
Could land under biodiversity net gain obligations count towards your 30by30 criteria? Although comprising lots of very small areas they are legally obliged to improve their natural habitat condition and it would mean the 30by30 and BNG measures were joined up.
Comment by jessicaeverett posted on
Hello Angus,
That's a great point and it's something the team have considered. In the new vision (linked to in the post above), there is a reference to how they will use existing mechanisms like biodiversity net gain to contribute to 30by30.
If you've got any specific questions on it, do let me know and I'll contact both teams.
Thanks,
Jess (The Blog Team)
Comment by Bruce Howard - Ecosystems Knowledge Network posted on
Angus raises an important point about Biodiversity Net Gain as a contributor to 30by30. It is worth considering this requirement in the context of the relatively small area of land in England subject to planning permission each year and the 10% minimum uplift. This means that, while Biodiversity Net Gain might be highly significant to nature recovery the very local level (and 'every little helps'), it is hard to see how it could be a major contributor to the achievement of 30by30 in only six years.
Comment by jessicaeverett posted on
Hi Bruce,
It's a fair point! While we expect that a significant proportion of biodiversity net gain (BNG) sites will be able to contribute to 30by30 on land in England, we recognise that 30by30 delivery will need to be supported by a broad range of measures and actions across all sectors and regions.
BNG definitely has its place, though. It locks in biodiversity gains for at least 30 years, and provides an example of how the private sector could contribute towards 30by30 in England.
We are currently developing our 30by30 delivery strategy, which will provide more detail on our pathway to 2030. We'll post any updates on this blog.
Thanks,
Jess
Comment by Angus Walker posted on
Ah yes, so it does, thank you!
Comment by Richard Watson posted on
I fully support the idea that protected landscapes (national parks and AONBs) should make a big contribution towards 30x30, but, as we know, land inside these areas is no more likely to be managed for wildlife than land outside them. Sadly, almost all of our uplands are still used for intensive sheep grazing. There are moves to reduce grazing and to manage some parts of the uplands primarily for carbon storage, flood prevention and biodiversity, but these efforts will need to be scaled-up massively before 2030 for them to make a big contribution towards 30x30. Can that be achieved? (NB. The NFU would no doubt oppose it, but most of the public are now firmly in favour!)
Comment by jessicaeverett posted on
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your comment. We’re committed to making our Protected Landscapes greener, wilder and more accessible – making them work better for people and nature. We’re currently considering how best to achieve this.
Once those decisions are made, we’ll post any updates on this blog.
Jess (The Blog Team)
Comment by Cris Kinrade posted on
Hi
I think this is a great idea . However it seems there is only c14% today contributing to the 30% target and this implies in 6 years need to convert c2 million hectares to reach this target which seems a very large amount !
Would appreciate if more detail on how and where find this from
Regards
Cris
Comment by jessicaeverett posted on
Hi,
Thanks for your comment, Cris. You're absolutely right - delivering this target will England requires urgent and significant action to drive nature’s recovery. Over the coming months, we will be developing an ambitious delivery strategy for 30by30, to ensure we make good on this commitment. We hope to finalise and publish this strategy next year (and we'll post on this blog when that happens).
In the meantime, do please read the vision we linked to in the blog post if you haven't already.
If you do have any questions after reading it, let me know. The policy team are happy to answer.
Thanks,
Jess (The Blog Team)
Comment by David Hackett posted on
How is biodiversity in soil being addressed? It seems to be the elephant in the room - in terms of total biodiversity, sequestration of carbon and ecosystem services. Including measures of biodiversity within BNG would be a good start and introducing measures of soil quality/health (such as SQUID) would help us understand the scale of the resource and challenge.
Comment by jessicaeverett posted on
Hi David,
Thank you for your comment. It's a good question. I've spoken to the team responsible for soil, and they said:
"We are taking action to improve biodiversity in soil. Under the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme we are paying farmers for actions that improve soil health, structure, organic matter, and biology, and prevent soil erosion and compaction.
National soil monitoring under the Natural Capital Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme began in Autumn 2022. The data will be collected on a 5-year rolling basis and includes the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of soil, which will enable us to establish a national baseline and improve our understanding of soil health and inform future policy decisions."
If you'd like to ready more about the NCEA, search for NCEA in the blog's search function and you'll find 2 posts about it.
Specifically regarding 30by30, the criteria require effective management and delivery of conservation outcomes. One way we intend for this to be demonstrated is through BNG assessments.
Thank you,
Jess (The Blog Team)
Comment by John Meehan posted on
I welcome this report , but we need to be more innovative and frankly a touch more radical now. The time for creating nature areas by including landscape designation is not now. The Government and therefore DEFRA need to realise it has the levers in it hands to turn these landscape designation into nature areas rapidly by encouraging landowners not to overgraze the National Parks and either to plant native woodland or where appropriate allow natural regeneration or rewilding. In the case of the New Forest, the Forestry Commission own the majority of the forest and could immediately stop grazing which has no food function. The time has come to seriously define what "nature" means and create it.
Comment by Tom Angel posted on
How to we deal with farms that take up some of this land though? We need to reduce farming for carbon footprint reasons, so this could be a double win?
Comment by jessicaeverett posted on
Hi Tom,
We're encouraging nature-friendly farming through our Environmental Land Management schemes and other initiatives like Farming in Protected Landscapes. This blog post on the Farming Blog provides a good overview (forgive the messy link, you might need to copy and paste): https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2024/10/30/budget-2024-maintaining-momentum/
Thanks,
Jess (The Blog Team)