Earth Today | UNEP makes headway on governance for nature

THE UNITED Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is reporting progress on efforts to improve governance of the natural world while also being intent on exposing the benefits for people everywhere.

“ In 2025, the organisation supported 70 nations to develop national biodiversity strategies and align them with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, an agreement to protect the natural world. The work is considered crucial to making good on the promise of the framework, which, among other goals and targets, aims to protect 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030,” UNEP revealed in its 2025 annual report titled Our Planet, Our Purpose.

“ UNEP also provided technical and financial assistance to 112 countries as they prepared their national reports to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. The reports spell out how nations are countering drought, desertification and land degradation, which affect three billion people worldwide,” it added.

Also among their priority ‘to dos’ for last year, the entity helped countries accelerate their ratification on the historic Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.

“ The landmark agreement, which in 2025 gained enough ratifications to officially enter into force in early 2026, will for the first time extend protection to biodiversity in the high seas. Among other things, UNEP is providing technical support to 29 countries as they align their laws with the treaty and prepare for its implementation,” the report explained.

Their progress comes against the background of growing pressure from not only overfishing and pollution but also from climate change, which presents a range of threats. These include rising seas surface temperatures, which hold implications for marine life whose survival is put at risk.

They also provided technical input on marine spatial planning and coastal erosion, among other areas, to the Group of 20 (G20), which together account for a reported 45 per cent of coastlines globally and some 85 per cent of gross domestic product. The G20 is an international forum comprised of the world’s largest economies, which come together to discuss and coordinate policies on trade and investment, as well as climate change, among other areas.

African countries also benefitted from UNEP’s efforts in the area of governance last year, receiving technical support for the creation of a “continent-wide strategy for governing ocean and coastal waters”.

“ The result of 10 years of consultations, the strategy focuses on protecting the region’s marine ecosystems while creating sustainable economic opportunities,” the report noted of the African Union, while also revealing that there was a total of some 148 countries to which the entity provided conservation, restoration and sustainability support.

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