ROME (February 28, 2025) — The COP16 biodiversity negotiations officially concluded, with countries agreeing on a strategy to increase finance for biodiversity to $200 billion annually by 2030. Countries also adopted a monitoring framework to track countries’ progress toward the Global Biodiversity Framework targets, including the goals to protect 30% of the world’s land and water and restore 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030.

These outcomes build on the prior outcomes from the COP16 negotiations in Cali, Colombia, which included a voluntary fund for companies to contribute to based on the genetic data from biodiversity they use, and a new permanent body to bring Indigenous Peoples and local communities into the negotiations.

Following is a statement by Crystal Davis, Global Director of Food, Land & Water Program, World Resources Institute:

“Amidst deeply fractured geopolitics, countries proved that they can still work together to preserve the biodiversity that all of humanity depends on. Agreeing on the first global roadmap to finance the world’s biodiversity protection is an important step forward, but it is still only a plan without the necessary dollars on the table.

“Now countries need to urgently get money to the nations and communities who need it to protect their biodiversity-rich ecosystems. Many of these ecosystems are imperative for people’s food and water, global climate stability, and countries’ economies and local communities’ livelihoods.

“Wealthy countries need to meet their commitment to provide $20 billion to developing countries this year. All countries should start reforming their nature-harming subsidies. Governments must provide the guidance and incentives to mobilize more private sector investment. And companies that use genetic data from biodiversity should contribute to the newly launched Cali Fund.

“More broadly, we must connect this outcome to larger finance efforts, including the COP30 roadmap for the $1.3 trillion annual goal for climate and nature. Amidst highly constrained budgets, it’s vital countries connect the many sources of finance for climate and nature and make them work together as a system.

“Operationalizing the monitoring framework is a bright spot. While not perfect, we are now better positioned to hold countries accountable for making progress toward the world’s goals to protect and restore the world’s forests, land and water. And it can help both governments and civil society learn and adapt by showing which actions work best to protect nature.

“It is groundbreaking that governments, for the first time, must now report on the extent to which they are protecting Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights and including them in conservation planning. Going forward, it’s critical that governments’ monitoring is transparent, cost-effective at scale, flexible and open source — and that independent monitoring accompanies official government systems.”