A YEAR IN REVIEW 2025
Growth, learning, collective action.
This year, NBSAP Accelerator Partnership members kept nature at the forefront of the global agenda. Against a challenging political backdrop, members strengthened coordination, advanced knowledge, and explored new pathways for alignment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
It was a year of growth, learning, and collective action.
Throughout the year, the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership deepened engagement with countries, expanded South-South learning, strengthened representation in international processes and continued refining its services to respond to an expanding demand for support.
As we close the year, we thank all our country members, institutions, and non-state actors for your collaboration, your trust and your leadership. Together, we are building a stronger, more connected, and more effective implementation ecosystem.
We invite you to explore our Year in Review and watch the greeting video from our facilitators who are supporting NBSAP implementation around the globe.
Katherine Madden, Global Coordinator, NBSAP Accelerator Partnership
Our growing global community
In 2025, the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership reached 100 members worldwide! We continue to grow as a global community working together to accelerate NBSAP implementation. Our community now includes:
COUNTRY MEMBERS DRIVING NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY ACTION
INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS OFFERING TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL EXPERTISE
NON-STATE ACTORS INCLUDING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND LOCAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS, RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS AND NETWORKS
EMBEDDED FACILITATORS SUPPORTING IN-COUNTRY AND REGIONAL NBSAP IMPLEMENTATION
PRESENCE ACROSS AFRICA, ASIA PACIFIC, LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN AND EUROPE
This diverse and expanding community reflects our shared commitment to a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to advancing real progress for Nature.
Our facilitators
Our in-country facilitators are the heartbeat of the Accelerator. They remind us why implementation matters and highlight the vital role individuals play in making it happen. Watch the short video below to get a peek into their meaningful work across the globe.
Voices from the ground: Stories that connect us
2025 was a year of tangible expansion for the Facilitator Programme.
- We onboarded all 12 facilitators from the first cohort into governmental host agencies, strengthening day-to-day coordination and implementation processes.
- Ten of these facilitators have completed their 2025–2026 workplans and budgets, giving countries a clear structure for delivery and engagement.
- In countries such as the DRC, Kenya, Mozambique, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Vanuatu, facilitators directly supported national coordination mechanisms and helped unite institutions around NBSAP priorities.
- Recruitment for our second cohort of 12 new facilitators progressed significantly, with four now onboarded.
Leadership and partnership
In 2025, collaboration with the CBD Secretariat, UNDP, and UNEP strengthened coordination, knowledge sharing, and advocacy across NBSAP processes. Additional partnerships with GIZ, HAC, BIOFIN, the GEF8 Umbrella Programme, Business for Nature and the NDC Partnership helped align country requests and connect support offers more effectively.
Our co-chairs from Colombia and Germany, together with our Steering Committee, provided essential leadership and strategic direction throughout the year.
We are deeply grateful for the continued support of Germany's BMUKN and BMZ, and the contributions of Norway, Canada and France, which made it possible to expand and consolidate our work in 2025.
Country demand and matchmaking
Demand for support through the MatchMaking Mechanism continued to grow in 2025, with 35 countries submitting 62 new requests, bringing the total to 67 requests since its launch. Most requests focused on data and digital infrastructure, protected areas planning and management, and education and human capacity. Digital systems showed the clearest gap, as none have secured full support.
When submitting requests, countries most often aligned their needs with the following Global Biodiversity Framework Targets:
INTEGRATING BIODIVERSITY ACROSS POLICIES, PLANNING AND SECTORS
CAPACITY, COOPERATION AND FINANCE FOR BIODIVERSITY
TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION AND SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION
AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION
INCLUSIVE AND EQUITABLE PARTICIPATION IN DECISION MAKING
Notably, Targets 15 (private sector disclosure), 16 (harmful incentives) and 18 (positive incentives) did not appear in any request.
Three unmet needs consistently emerged across requests: national coordination mechanisms, data and digital systems, and foundational scientific inputs for restoration and risk assessment. These represent the clearest opportunities for catalytic support through the Accelerator Action Account.
Regionally, more than half of all project-based requests come from African States, with 60 percent unsupported. Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for 42 percent of requests, while only one came from Central Asia, and none from West Asia, Southeast Asia or the Pacific.
Featured match
Colombia + Earth Law Center: Biodiversity education and communication for collective action
Colombia’s request on biodiversity education and communication received indicative partial support from the Earth Law Center, which offered pro bono assistance for two of the four proposed activities. While the agreement is not yet formalized, this collaboration represents a meaningful step toward strengthening awareness and community engagement, and it illustrates how strategic partnerships can help advance priority actions even in early stages. This partial match reflects the growing interest of civil society actors in supporting NBSAP-related implementation.
Advocacy and representation
Throughout 2025, we used global and regional platforms to champion country needs, advance NBSAP implementation, elevate biodiversity within the political arena, and position the Accelerator as a trusted partner for connecting countries with technical and financial support.
We participated in key dialogues and workshops on monitoring, reporting, restoration, Target 2 and Target 3, capacity building, gender and biodiversity, and synergies across multilateral environmental agreements. These engagements took place in locations such as Bangkok, Yaoundé, Cape Town, Bogotá, Panama, Suriname, Yerevan, Apia and Berlin, complemented by participation in global events such as UNGA 80, SBSTTA 27, UNFCCC Global Climate Week, UNFCCC COP30, the Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB62), CITES COP20, and the Global NDC Conference.
Across these spaces we deepened relationships with members and partners, gained clearer insight into country priorities and constraints, strengthened the connection between nature and climate agendas, and helped keep country-led implementation at the center of the global biodiversity and climate agenda.
Stories from 2025
Alongside the voices of our facilitators, we invite you to explore a curated selection of twelve stories that capture the essence of our year. These articles reflect the diversity of our work: advances in integrated action, early matches taking shape, regional knowledge exchanges, interviews with national leaders, progress on gender equality and emerging synergies between biodiversity and climate agendas.
From the Asia Pacific to West and Central Africa, from Latin America to the Caribbean and from Somalia to Togo, these stories document how countries, partners and institutions came together to exchange knowledge, test new ideas, and move NBSAPs forward.
Each story is a window into the energy, creativity and collaboration that shaped 2025:
- Advancing integrated action for Nature at the Asia-Pacific workshop on accelerating the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
- Strengthening biodiversity action: Liberia matches with academic consortium CASCADE
- Building on shared learning: Insights from the third regional knowledge exchange in Peru
- Shared learning as a catalyst: Insights from IUCN’s regional knowledge exchanges
- Bridging the gap: Knowledge exchange for NBSAP acceleration
- Knowledge exchange forum drives action on biodiversity commitments in Southeast Asia
- Advancing biodiversity action in Somalia with OSS match
- Gender equality and biodiversity conservation in Togo: A conversation with CBD Focal Point Dr Amah Atutonu, Epse Kueviakoe
- Seven countries advance gender equality in biodiversity policies and actions through first global workshop
- Enhancing synergies between NDCs and NBSAPs
- Learning to stand together – Brazil
- Learning to stand together – Indonesia
Accelerating action together
Thank you for your leadership, trust, and collaboration throughout 2025. We look forward to walking with you into 2026 as we deepen delivery, strengthen learning, and support national action across regions.
We extend our sincere thanks to our supporters: the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI); the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Government of Norway, implemented by GIZ; and the Governments of Canada and France.
The support of our hosts, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, UNDP, and UNEP, has been instrumental in achieving these results.
Together, we are transforming NBSAPs into meaningful results for people and the planet.