Governments

Why are KBAs important for Governments?

National governments play a crucial role in protecting our planet’s biodiversity. That is why, they are encouraged to use KBA data as an effective tool to focus conservation action in the most significant places for wildlife and ecosystems.

How KBAs shape National Conservation Plans

Identifying KBAs is a cornerstone of any effective national spatial conservation plan, as the KBA criteria ensure a comprehensive assessment that covers multiple taxonomic groups, ensuring an array of biodiversity elements are represented. Applying the criteria ensures that where a country has a responsibility for a globally significant population of a species or part of an ecosystem, these are identified and incorporated in national spatial plans.

While almost every country has identified at least one KBA, most have not comprehensively assessed their KBAs across all species and ecosystems. Consequently, many KBAs remain unknown and unmapped. Where comprehensive assessments have been made, recognised KBA areas have more than doubled.

Under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), it is essential for all countries to update their KBA network to:

- Guide spatial planning (Target 1)
- Prioritise restoration (Target 2)
- Best implement 30 x 30 planning and OECM identification (Target 3)
- Mainstream biodiversity in decision-making (Target 14)
- Engage business in minimising their impacts on biodiversity (Target 15)

The process of identifying and re-assessing KBAs brings together biodiversity data and uses it to inform conservation, thereby achieving Target 21 of the KMGBF also.