Published October 21, 2025
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Potential of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves to advance the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Creators

  • 1. Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
  • 2. Tsinghua University
  • 3. Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center, College of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China.
  • 4. Ministry of Education Ecological Field Station for East Asian Migratory Birds, Beijing 100084, China.
  • 5. Institute of Carbon Neutrality, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
  • 6. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
  • 7. Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • 8. Industrial Ecology Programme and Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.
  • 9. Norwegian University of Science and Technology
  • 10. College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
  • 11. China Agricultural University
  • 12. Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
  • 13. School of Information and Communication Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
  • 14. Dalian University of Technology
  • 15. School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
  • 16. Xiuzhong College, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
  • 17. Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
  • 18. Imperial College London
  • 19. Chebaling UNESCO MAB Reserve, Shaoguan 512500, China.
  • 20. Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences, Natural Sciences Sector, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris 75007, France.
  • 21. Secretary of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris 75352, France.

Description

As one of UNESCO's three key site-based designations, the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (BRs) integrates conservation and development, setting it apart from traditional protected areas (PAs). Yet its conservation effectiveness and role in advancing the global biodiversity agenda remain underexplored. This evidence-based global assessment of BRs' effectiveness and potential in supporting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) indicates that generally BRs maintained habitat quality not lower than that of PAs, with region-specific instances where BRs surpassed sites in IUCN Categories IV-VI. Including BRs-typically omitted from global conservation statistics-into conservation efforts increased terrestrial coverage for KMGBF Target 3 from 16.57% to 19.65%. With effective implementation, integration of BRs into the global area-based conservation network would produce measurable coverage gains across six KMGBF-linked opportunity templates, including +8.47% for Biodiversity Hotspots (per Target 1), +4.05% for Risk Ecoregions (per Target 2), +7.01% for Phylogenetic Diversity Hotspots (per Target 4), +7.25% for areas of high Traded Functional Diversity (per Target 5), +4.37% for regions of High Biomass Carbon (per Target 8), and +1.95% for globally Indigenous Lands (per Target 22). Based on integrated assessments of conservation value and coverage rate, 17 Udvardy's Biogeographical Provinces were identified as post-2025 WNBR expansion priorities that align with the KMGBF and the Hangzhou Strategic Action Plan (2026-2035).
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