As countries move from updating to implementing National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans, success increasingly depends on more than ambition alone. Governments need reliable evidence, accessible data, effective monitoring systems, coordinated policies and strong partnerships to make informed decisions, track progress and adapt action over time. Helping countries build these enabling conditions is at the core of the work of the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).

UNEP-WCMC supports countries with the science, data, policy expertise and practical tools needed to turn biodiversity commitments into measurable action toward the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. From biodiversity monitoring and indicators to finance, policy coherence and inclusive governance, the Centre helps address common implementation barriers, including limited technical capacity, uneven access to biodiversity information and fragmented decision-making. This work strengthens the evidence base that underpins effective biodiversity action.

Established in 1988 and incorporated into UNEP in 2000, UNEP-WCMC has evolved into one of the world’s leading centres for biodiversity knowledge, monitoring and policy support. Operating as a collaboration between UNEP and the UK charity WCMC, the Centre works at the interface of science, policy and implementation, guided by its mission to develop knowledge and capacity to improve the state of nature for all.

Over nearly four decades, UNEP-WCMC has developed globally recognized platforms and partnerships, including  Protected Planet, the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership, and the UN Biodiversity Lab, while expanding its work into biodiversity finance, policy coherence, spatial planning and inclusive implementation. Today, UNEP-WCMC collaborates with governments, multilateral environmental agreements, businesses, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, researchers and civil society to strengthen biodiversity decision-making around the world.

As the international community shifts from target-setting to implementation, UNEP-WCMC has increasingly focused on helping countries transition into practical national action. This shared commitment to country-led implementation made collaborating with the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership a natural extension of its long-standing work. Through the Accelerator and its MatchMaking Mechanism (MMM), UNEP-WCMC is able to connect its established technical expertise directly with country-defined implementation priorities, ensuring that its science, knowledge and tools respond to the needs countries identify.

As countries move from biodiversity ambition to implementation, one of the greatest challenges is knowing where to focus limited resources and how to measure whether actions are working. UNEP-WCMC helps countries overcome gaps in biodiversity data, monitoring capacity and technical expertise by building stronger national monitoring systems and evidence-based decision-making.

Through its National Monitoring Support Initiative, UNEP-WCMC works with countries and regional partners to strengthen biodiversity monitoring systems and contribute to the use of the Global Biodiversity Framework monitoring framework and headline indicators. The initiative helps countries develop monitoring plans, strengthen national capacity, and build the evidence needed to adapt implementation over time. Supporting this work is UNEP-WCMC’s role in mobilising a network of support  of more than 70 organizations that develops and promotes biodiversity indicators to track progress toward biodiversity commitments. Together, these initiatives can help countries move beyond reporting to informed, evidence-based decision-making.

UNEP-WCMC also developed guidance under the GEF-7 Early Action Support initiative, to support Parties in setting up national monitoring plans, available on the Learning for Nature NBSAP Forum in English, French, and Spanish. It also has a range of tools for assessing national capacity for monitoring and developing and maintaining indicators.

Effective implementation depends on access to reliable, accessible biodiversity information. Yet many countries continue to face significant data gaps and limited analytical capacity. UNEP-WCMC develops and maintains some of the world’s most widely used biodiversity knowledge platforms, giving countries free access to trusted data, mapping tools and spatial analysis. Through the Protected Planet Initiative, UNEP-WCMC collates data from national governments and others and shares the most authoritative source of data on protected and conserved areas (the World Database on Protected Areas, WDPA and the World Database on Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures, WD-OECMs). The platform supports countries to track collective progress towards multiple environmental targets, including the Global Biodiversity Framework’s Target 3.

Through the UN Biodiversity Lab, UNEP-WCMC, UNDP and partners provide countries with free spatial data, satellite imagery and analytical tools that support spatial planning, identify conservation priorities, strengthen biodiversity monitoring, including through indicator calculation, and inform NBSAP implementation. The open-access platform enables countries to translate biodiversity information into practical policy and management decisions.

Biodiversity implementation cannot succeed through governments alone. Achieving the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework requires biodiversity to be integrated into economic decision-making and embedded across public policy. UNEP-WCMC works with governments, businesses and financial institutions to create the enabling conditions for biodiversity finance by helping mobilize private investment, redirect harmful financial flows and strengthen policies that support investment in nature. This work is brought together in the 2025 Mobilizing Finance for Biodiversity report, which provides practical guidance for governments on engaging private finance and creating the policy environment needed to accelerate NBSAP implementation.

Another major barrier to implementation is fragmentation. Although NBSAPs require coordinated action across ministries, sectors and multilateral environmental agreements, implementation often remains siloed. UNEP-WCMC helps countries strengthen policy coherence across biodiversity, climate, food systems, water, health and development agendas so that biodiversity becomes part of broader national decision-making rather than a standalone environmental objective.

UNEP-WCMC recognizes that successful implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework depends not only on robust science and data, but also on inclusive, participatory, and accountable governance. The Centre works with governments, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, researchers, and civil society to strengthen biodiversity knowledge systems that support equitable decision-making and ensure NBSAP implementation reflects a whole-of-society approach.

UNEP-WCMC is helping countries integrate Indigenous knowledge into national monitoring and reporting while advancing gender-responsive approaches to biodiversity monitoring. Recent work in collaboration with the Forest Peoples Programme, and the CBD Secretariat, under the IKI-supported Transformative Pathways project, explored practical approaches for linking Traditional Ecological Knowledge and government data. Partners shared experiences from Colombia combining Indigenous and government data through geographic information systems, and from gender-related monitoring in Ghana, contributing to implementation of Target 22.

Complementing this work, UNEP-WCMC supports platforms that broaden participation in biodiversity conservation beyond governments. The ICCA Registry documents Territories of Life, strengthening global evidence of the contribution of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to biodiversity conservation.

The MatchMaking Mechanism (MMM) is a core component of the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership that connects countries with partners and drives collaborations vital to achieving the Global Biodiversity Framework and its 23 targets. 

For UNEP-WCMC, the MMM is a practical way to connect its technical expertise with country-defined priorities while complementing, rather than duplicating, existing efforts. Franco explained: “The MMM is valuable because it helps turn broad partnership intent into targeted, practical collaboration. It provides a way to align technical expertise with country needs while helping countries access support that is relevant to their NBSAP implementation priorities.”

One of the first opportunities for UNEP-WCMC to put the MatchMaking Mechanism (MMM) into practice emerged with a request for support from El Salvador. The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) identified strengthening biodiversity monitoring as a national priority and sought technical support to improve biodiversity indicators, monitoring systems and reporting capacity. Through the MatchMaking Mechanism, the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership connected this country-defined need with UNEP-WCMC’s National Monitoring Support Initiative, creating a collaboration built around national priorities rather than externally designed projects. 

The match will combine UNEP-WCMC’s technical expertise with El Salvador’s implementation priorities to strengthen national biodiversity monitoring systems, improve the use of Global Biodiversity Framework indicators, enhance reporting capacity and build long-term institutional capability. For El Salvador, the match builds on years of existing effort. As Dr. José Enrique Barraza Sandoval, Director of Biodiversity at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, explains: “El Salvador has been advancing on biodiversity action for years, and now we are building the data systems and institutional capacity to make that progress measurable and sustained.”

Interestingly, UNEP-WCMC and the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership had identified the opportunity independently. While UNEP-WCMC had recognized El Salvador through its National Monitoring Support Initiative, the Accelerator was simultaneously working with the country to identify implementation needs. The MMM connected these parallel efforts into a single collaboration. 

The UNEP-WCMC collaboration is also a part of long-term vision and has the potential for broad impact. Franco described: “The collaboration with El Salvador is country-led, capacity-focused and designed for creating long-term impact by creating opportunities for peer learning and wider regional uptake. This means that the experiences and lessons learned from El Salvador can be shared with other countries and vice versa.”

Looking ahead, UNEP-WCMC sees growing opportunities to deepen collaboration with countries through the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership by expanding support for monitoring, biodiversity knowledge, and policy coherence as the enabling conditions for implementation. As countries transition from updating NBSAPs to implementing them, UNEP-WCMC aims to continue providing the science, data, partnerships and technical expertise needed to help governments make informed decisions, track progress and adapt actions over time.