COP17: New assessment highlights World Heritage Convention's contribution to global biodiversity goals

A new technical note published by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), in partnership with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, examines how the World Heritage Convention is reflected in national efforts to implement the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). It also identifies opportunities to further strengthen its contribution to global biodiversity goals.

Entitled Recognising World Heritage in the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the technical note is released on the occasion of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia, where UNESCO is contributing to international efforts to advance implementation of the GBF, including through its co-organisation of the Nature–Culture Summit.

Drawing on an analysis of 142 national reports submitted by Parties to the CBD to assess progress towards global biodiversity goals, the technical note finds that 56 countries (39.4%) explicitly referred to World Heritage in their reporting. References to World Heritage were associated with all 23 targets of the GBF, demonstrating the Convention's relevance across a wide range of biodiversity objectives.

The strongest connection was with Target 3 on protected and conserved areas, reflecting the established role of natural World Heritage properties in biodiversity conservation. World Heritage sites are known to harbour more than 20% of mapped global species richness and provide critical habitats for over 20,000 globally threatened species, as demonstrated in the UNESCO and IUCN publication, World Heritage: A Unique Contribution to Biodiversity Conservation. Beyond Target 3, national reports also recognised contributions relating to species conservation, spatial planning, international cooperation and traditional knowledge and practices.

Unlocking the World Heritage Convention's full potential for biodiversity conservation

The analysis found that references to World Heritage most commonly concerned the designation of properties and their management. Other aspects of the Convention's implementation, including its monitoring and international support mechanisms, were much less visible in national reporting.

Building on these findings, the technical note identifies several opportunities to strengthen the Convention's contribution to the GBF, including three areas that receive comparatively limited attention.

First, cultural heritage can make a distinct contribution to biodiversity conservation. By bringing natural and cultural heritage together within a single international framework, the World Heritage Convention provides a basis for connecting biodiversity conservation with cultural practices, knowledge systems and the relationships between people and nature.

Cultural and mixed World Heritage properties, including cultural landscapes, sacred sites and historic cities, can contribute through traditional knowledge and practices, sustainable resource management and the stewardship of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. However, these contributions remain largely absent from national biodiversity reporting.

Second, the Convention's monitoring and support mechanisms remain underutilised. While World Heritage properties and their management systems are frequently recognised in national reports, mechanisms such as Reactive Monitoring, Periodic Reporting and the List of World Heritage in Danger receive much less attention. These mechanisms generate information on conservation challenges and priorities that can inform national biodiversity planning and action.

Third, the analysis also points to gaps in biodiversity financing. Despite its contribution to global biodiversity conservation, the World Heritage Convention does not directly benefit from the financial mechanisms of the Rio Conventions. The technical note identifies opportunities to better connect World Heritage conservation priorities with national biodiversity financing and international funding mechanisms, including the Global Environment Facility, particularly where conservation needs have already been identified through the Convention's monitoring processes.

Strengthening synergies between the World Heritage Convention and CBD

The World Heritage Committee has consistently supported the development and implementation of the GBF. Following the GBF's adoption in 2022, the Committee welcomed the Framework and called on States Parties to make full use of the World Heritage Convention in its implementation, including by integrating World Heritage into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) (Decision 45 COM 7.2).

The GBF has also informed broader discussions on the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, including the work of the Open-Ended Working Group of States Parties. Its recommendations, adopted by the Committee in 2025, called for greater synergies between World Heritage properties and other international designations in nominations, management and reporting, as well as dedicated financing for natural and mixed World Heritage nominations in line with GBF Target 3 (Decision 47 COM 11).

Further opportunities were identified through an expert meeting held on the Isle of Vilm, Germany, in November 2024. Its recommendations, welcomed by the Committee in 2025, emphasised stronger integration of World Heritage into national biodiversity planning, cooperation among conventions and improved access to biodiversity financing.

The new technical note contributes to these ongoing efforts by identifying practical opportunities to strengthen the role of the World Heritage Convention in national biodiversity action and financing. As countries assess collective progress towards the GBF, its findings can help inform more coordinated implementation of the two Conventions and strengthen conservation outcomes for World Heritage properties and biodiversity more broadly.

Read the technical note: Recognising World Heritage in the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, IUCN WCPA Technical Note No. 30 (October 2026).