What does it look like when a country translates the global OECM framework into a working national system? On 16 April 2026, the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC) and the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership MatchMaking Mechanism (MMM) brought together five countries for its first Knowledge Exchange. The peer-to-peer session grew directly out of a coordinated effort to bundle common requests for support submitted to MMM and HAC, and together find broad reaching solutions. 

During the Knowledge Exchange, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment presented its experience with OECMs, in particular its national “Kyosei Sites” certification scheme, a model that has led to an increase of sustainable management and conservation of diverse ecosystems through the involvement of diverse actors. The session offered participating countries a concrete, replicable blueprint for operationalizing OECMs beyond protected areas.

Japan’s approach to OECMs is anchored in the concept of Kyosei, a Japanese term meaning harmony and coexistence. The officially designated scheme, “Nationally Certified Sustainably Managed Natural Sites,” or Kyosei Sites for short, was launched in 2023 and reflects a model where conservation occurs alongside human activities, not separate from them.

As presented by Kohei Kiname, Deputy Director of the Office of Local Nature Positive Transition at Japan’s Ministry of the Environment, Kyosei Sites are areas with important ecosystems that are conserved by various actors and recognized through a national certification system. Sites located outside protected areas are eligible to be reported as OECMs under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Since its launch, 569 sites have been established across over 110,000 hectares. 

Kiname shared:

One of the most striking features of the Kyosei system is the breadth of actors involved. Rather than relying exclusively on government-managed sites, the scheme explicitly encourages contributions from private companies, NGOs, local governments, academic institutions, and individuals: 

• 52% are private companies
• 30% are NGOs and academic institutions
• 16% are local governments
• 2% are individuals

This distribution reflects a fundamentally non-regulatory, incentive-based design. Rather than imposing obligations, Japan has created conditions for voluntary participation through pre-application consultation, government subsidies, expert matchmaking, certificates of support for contributing organizations, and official visibility tools such as the use of logos. The result is a system where private sector engagement is both strong and structurally embedded. 

The five-year renewal requirement ensures continuity and accountability, though participants noted that the administrative demands of the process, while enhancing credibility, may pose challenges for smaller organizations and communities. Long-term financial sustainability and accessibility remain areas for further development.

The session included examples illustrating the diversity of sites that can qualify as Kyosei Sites, spanning very different ecosystems and governance arrangements:

• Corporate-managed forest landscapes
• Private sector conservation in mountainous ecosystems
• Fisheries-led coastal and marine restoration
• Community-managed Satoyama landscapes

The exchange generated rich dialogue, with representatives from Cuba, the Philippines, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, and Somalia raising substantive questions reflecting their own contexts. Discussion spanned certification criteria and alignment with IUCN standards, cost distribution and subsidy allocation, private sector engagement strategies, and compliance monitoring. Participants also explored the role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and how the model could be adapted to different national contexts — including ways to reduce administrative burden.

Japan acknowledged areas for ongoing development, including the accessibility of monitoring data, which is often aggregated rather than publicly disclosed, and the need for stronger incentives to attract a wider range of participants over time.

This session did not happen by accident. It emerged from a deliberate bundling process coordinated between the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership’s MMM and HAC, in which countries that had each independently submitted OECM-related requests were grouped together — creating the conditions for shared learning at scale rather than isolated, one-off support.

In her remarks at the session, Melissa Laverde, Membership and Governance Lead at the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership, highlighted the significance of the moment:

The session also marked a milestone as the first Knowledge Exchange convened under the MMM-HAC collaboration — a proof of concept for what bundled, peer-to-peer support can look like in practice.

Japan is actively advancing international collaboration to consolidate lessons from the Kyosei model and develop practical guidance for other countries, including through a joint initiative ahead of COP17. The model offers a promising pathway for operationalizing OECMs at scale, while the questions raised by participating countries point to a shared agenda: reducing administrative burden, strengthening long-term incentives, and ensuring genuine inclusion of communities and smaller actors.

For countries working to translate Target 3 commitments into national systems, the Kyosei approach offers both a conceptual anchor — the vision of conservation through coexistence — and a concrete operational model worth learning from. And for the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership, this Knowledge Exchange demonstrates the momentum building around OECMs and the value of connecting countries with one another as they advance implementation.

Is your country working to operationalize OECMs or advance Target 3 implementation? The NBSAP Accelerator Partnership connects countries with tailored technical and financial support through its MatchMaking Mechanism.

Explore how the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership can support your NBSAP implementation at nbsapaccelerator.org and get in touch to discuss your country’s needs directly.