In the second half of October 2026, the 196 governments that are signatories to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and non-government organizations working on nature conservation convened in Yerevan, Armenia, for the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP17). Their discussions focused on priority actions to strengthen global efforts to protect and conserve biodiversity (all living things, including but not limited to plants and animals), in line with the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) held its own Conference of the Parties in August. As the global environmental Convention that has made greater progress in integrating land tenure and land governance considerations into its work, the UNCCD offers relatively direct entry points for ensuring that land governance strengthens efforts to achieve its objectives. By contrast, opportunities to integrate responsible land governance into the implementation of the CBD are less explicit, as the Convention does not have a dedicated COP agenda item on land tenure. Despite this, several provisions and decisions under the CBD offer important entry points for strengthening land governance as a means of advancing nature conservation.
As noted in an earlier post in this series, the rationale for linking land governance to environmental action lies in the fact that, in many countries in the Global South, environmental interventions are primarily land-based. Forest protection and conservation, for example, can contribute to the objectives of all three Rio Conventions (the UNCCD, the CBD, and the UNFCCC) by preventing land degradation, protecting biodiversity-rich areas, and mitigating climate change through carbon sequestration. The way land is used, administered, and governed therefore has significant implications for the effectiveness and sustainability of environmental interventions.
Given that many biodiversity conservation efforts are land-based, several important entry points exist. These include actions relating to monitoring progress in implementing the Convention, cooperation with international organizations and bodies established under other conventions, and Article 8(j) of the Convention, which recognizes the contributions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to conservation.
This article reflects on the decisions adopted at CBD COP17 that offer entry points for integrating responsible land governance into nature conservation, and puts forward recommendations on how actors at both global and national levels can translate these opportunities into practice.
Supporting monitoring and reporting on the Global Biodiversity Framework
This COP agenda item focuses on how governments monitor, assess, and report on progress towards achieving the 23 targets of the KMGBF.
Progress towards achieving the 23 KMBGF targets is assessed through national level indicators (qualitative and quantitative metrics), as guided by the global monitoring framework of the convention. Land-related indicators have been adopted to track progress towards Target 2 (ecosystem restoration), Target 3 (conservation of terrestrial and marine areas), and Target 22 (participation and rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, including their rights over lands, territories, and resources). Target 23 reinforces this approach by ensuring that inclusiveness covers women, including those from Indigenous and local communities. However, challenges remain in developing and operationalizing the methodologies needed to collect the data required to report against these indicators.
The International Land Coalition (ILC), the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are part of a technical working group supporting the development of methodologies for collecting relevant data that can inform CBD reporting. In 2026, IMPACT Kenya, an Indigenous Peoples-led organization, coordinated the participation of several Indigenous Peoples’ representatives from Kenya in presenting community-generated data and datasets to the technical working group. Similar initiatives are being undertaken by the technical working group in The Philippines and Cameroon. These efforts present an opportunity to strengthen the integration of land tenure and land governance into biodiversity monitoring and reporting. By generating evidence on land rights, tenure security, and the governance of land and natural resources, such initiatives can help governments better understand how land governance influences progress towards the KMGBF targets and identify where further action is needed.
The opportunity for global and national organizations advancing and advocating for secure land rights and responsible land governance is in developing projects and programs that will support the collection of land data that can inform national reporting on land-related indicators of the global biodiversity framework. For the organizations that would pursue this opportunity, a practical first step would be connecting with the national focal point of the CBD in the country to establish whether the government has been reporting on land-related indicators. Names and details of the CBD national focal points are available on the CBD country profiles page. Based on the feedback, these organizations can develop projects to either establish or strengthen the frameworks through which the land data can be collected and inform national reporting.
Another opportunity lies in supporting Indigenous Peoples and local communities in organizing their existing, community-generated land data disaggregated by age, sex and disability, and presenting it in ways that can inform national reporting under the CBD. In practice, this could involve community-led mapping of their territories, resources and sites of customary significance, or organizing existing community-generated maps to be validated and presented to national ministries responsible for CBD reporting. Additionally, this could involve collaboration between government and non-government actors to set up national databases for community-generated data. These databases or information management systems can progressively guide communities on the minimum data requirements and standards they could meet to contribute to national reporting.
Supporting the Implementation of Article 8(j) and other provisions of the Convention related to indigenous peoples and local communities
The COP decision on implementing Article 8(j) of the CBD presents the most significant opportunities for integrating land tenure and land governance into the Convention’s frameworks and processes, particularly in relation to Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ (IPLCs) lands, territories, and traditional governance systems.
Article 8(j) recognizes the contributions of IPLCs to biodiversity conservation through their traditional knowledge, innovations, and practices. It calls on governments, subject to their national legislation, to respect, preserve, and maintain the knowledge and practices of IPLCs that embody traditional lifestyles relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. It also calls for the wider application of such knowledge and practices, with the approval and involvement of their holders, and for the equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use.
The decision adopted at COP17 provides several important entry points for advancing land tenure and land governance with the aim of enhancing biodiversity conservation measures. These entry points include integrating traditional lands and territories into spatial planning processes; developing legal, policy, and administrative measures to identify, recognize, and protect IPLC territories; applying a human rights-based approach and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) principles; promoting gender equality and intergenerational equity; and strengthening customary governance systems.
For global and national organizations working to advance secure land rights and responsible land governance, these provisions present opportunities to develop projects, programmes, and initiatives that support the recognition, protection, and sustainable governance of lands and territories stewarded by IPLCs. In countries where national laws do not adequately recognize customary, traditional, or communal land tenure and governance systems, the decision provides a basis for advocacy aimed at developing or strengthening relevant legal and policy frameworks. In countries where national laws recognize customary, traditional, or communal land tenure and governance systems, the decision is a reference point for advocacy programmes calling for the consistent implementation of these laws. The COP17 decision serves as a global policy reference for organizations and community representatives calling on governments to align national legislation and land governance practices with their commitments under the CBD and to strengthen the implementation of Article 8(j).
Further opportunities exist for land rights and land governance organizations in supporting IPLCs to develop community-led frameworks and protocols for implementing FPIC in the context of biodiversity conservation measures and the use of traditional knowledge. Such frameworks can help clarify how consent should be sought, how communities participate in decisions affecting their lands and resources, and how their rights and customary decision-making processes can be respected throughout the design and implementation of conservation initiatives. The outcomes of these processes will vary across countries, reflecting differences in national laws, policy frameworks, and local circumstances, as well as the distinct contexts of individual communities. Developing a robust and adaptable framework that governments and non-state actors can apply will therefore require additional time, resources, and meaningful engagement with the communities concerned.
Another potentially transformative opportunity is for organizations working on land tenure and land governance to move beyond securing the legal recognition of IPLC territories to supporting their systematic documentation and mapping. Where communities consent to such initiatives and appropriate safeguards are in place, participatory mapping can generate evidence of the extent and location of indigenous and traditional territories (ITTs), strengthen advocacy for their legal recognition, and inform biodiversity conservation and spatial planning processes. Documenting these territories could also generate valuable case studies and practical lessons for other countries seeking to recognize Indigenous and traditional territories and integrate them into national biodiversity conservation strategies. Ultimately, this approach could help ensure that conservation efforts recognize the ecological importance of biodiversity-rich indigenous and traditional territories as well as the land rights, knowledge, and governance systems of the communities that steward them.
In addition, the outputs of the approach described above could inform the next round of CBD negotiations by providing a basis for recognizing Indigenous and traditional territories as a separate system that contributes to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, complementing while remaining distinct from protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). Organizations working on land tenure and land governance can develop projects and programmes that collaborate with conservation organizations to document activities on Indigenous and traditional territories through case studies and ensure that these efforts are reflected in national reporting in line with national biodiversity plans.
Cooperation with international organizations and bodies established under other conventions
A third key opportunity for integrating land tenure and land governance into the implementation of the CBD lies in building on the COP17 decision on cooperation with international organizations and bodies established under other conventions.
This decision provides an opportunity for global and national organizations working on land tenure and land governance to build on existing land-related processes, frameworks, and interventions developed to support implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and extend their application to biodiversity conservation under the CBD. Leveraging these existing mechanisms could help enhance synergies across the Rio Conventions, reduce duplication of efforts, and ensure that land tenure and land governance considerations are addressed more consistently across global environmental agendas.
A practical and actionable entry point would be for governments to make use of the land tenure focal points established through the land tenure decision adopted at UNCCD COP16 in their CBD-related activities. At the national level, land tenure focal points could help identify and coordinate opportunities to integrate land tenure and land governance into the implementation of relevant CBD decisions, including those relating to biodiversity monitoring and reporting, the recognition and protection of IPLC territories, and the strengthening of traditional, customary and communal land and territorial governance systems. By building on existing institutional arrangements and expertise, governments could advance land-related actions under the CBD without creating new coordination mechanisms.
Entry points for donors and development partners
In concluding, it is worth emphasizing that while the proposed follow-up actions are primarily directed at organizations working on land tenure and land governance, they also offer valuable guidance for donors and development partners in designing their funding programmes. For example, the CBD COP17 decision on cooperation with other conventions provides a policy basis for development programmes that strengthen synergies across the three Rio Conventions at the national level. By aligning funding priorities with these opportunities, donors and development partners can help ensure that investments in land governance contribute to multiple environmental objectives, including biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and combating land degradation. In doing so, they can help bridge the gap between global environmental commitments and practical, coordinated action on the ground.
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SDG’s covered in this article: SDG 15 – Life On Land, SDG 5 – Gender Equality, SDG 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Featured image: Misty forest in Dilijan, Armenia. Photo by Mar Mkrtchyan / Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).
