Nigeria and France urged political leaders to back the 30×30 biodiversity goal with more funding and collective action at a COP17 event, Premium Times reported, as a separate report projected an international funding shortfall. The Target 3 Action Day program listed the event for Sunday, Oct. 25, at the KM-GBF Pavilion in Yerevan, Armenia.
Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for effective conservation and management over at least 30% of land and inland waters by 2030, with a separate 30% threshold for marine and coastal areas. Its criteria also address ecosystem representation and connections between areas, fair governance, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Adopted in 2022, the framework is undergoing its first global review at the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17), scheduled in Yerevan from Oct. 19-30.
A 2025 Campaign for Nature report said international funding for protected and conserved areas in developing countries rose from $396 million in 2014 to more than $1.1 billion in 2024. It estimated that support for 30×30 would need to reach $6 billion a year by 2030 and projected a $4 billion annual shortfall if the reported growth rate persisted. Germany, the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, the European Union and the United States together supplied 54% of tracked disbursements since 2022, the report said, leaving funding exposed to political shifts.
The High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, co-chaired by Nigeria and France, issued a Sept. 23 declaration calling for national plans and financing from domestic, public, philanthropic and private sources, including blended finance. It urged accessible and timely support for developing countries. Barbara Pompili, France’s ambassador for the environment, said in a coalition statement that “the qualitative dimension of conservation is just as vital as quantity.”
The declaration cited a 2020 analysis that estimated protected-area-based implementation of the 30% goal would require $103 billion to $178 billion a year. The study modeled 70% to 90% of those costs falling on low- and middle-income countries and said they would need assistance. COP17’s global review is underway, with the conference scheduled to continue through Oct. 30.
