Develop and implement a Western Balkans 2030 Biodiversity Strategic Plan

ROADMAP PROGRESS

The 2025 GARI reports that regional biodiversity governance advanced substantially during the reporting period. The Outline of the WB6 Biodiversity Strategic Plan 2030 (BSP 2030), developed jointly by the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) and IUCN in consultation with the Biodiversity Task Force of the Western Balkans (BDTF WB), was published on the RCC website in October 2025. Its publication followed the endorsement of the Dubrovnik Declaration at the Second Ministerial Meeting on the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, held on 14 October 2025, at which ministers of environment and sustainable development from the WB6 endorsed the Outline as one of four key strategic documents, alongside the revised Green Agenda Action Plan 2025–2030, the WB6 Climate Adaptation Roadmap and the Regional Action Plan on Plastic Pollution Prevention.

The BSP 2030 is structured around five strategic goals: expanding and effectively managing protected areas; restoring degraded ecosystems; preventing species loss; integrating biodiversity into key sectors; and improving governance, knowledge and financing. Its stated mission is to provide a common regional framework for translating global and European biodiversity goals into coherent action across the WB6, supporting alignment with biodiversity-related EU policies and the pertinent parts of the EU acquis, including Chapter 27 on Environment and Climate Change. The institutional architecture underpinning the Plan is coordinated through the BDTF WB, established under the Regional Working Group on the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans and active since 2017, with its Secretariat hosted by IUCN. The Task Force steers biodiversity policy, advises governments, supports knowledge exchange and engages with European and global processes, including the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and its work is supported by the IUCN Greening the Western Balkans project (August 2024 to July 2028), funded by the Austrian Development Agency with a grant of €1.8 million as part of International Partnerships Austria. The 2025 GARI notes that endorsement of the Outline marks the beginning rather than the completion of the process: the measure of progress will be the adoption of domestic implementation frameworks, the establishment of measurable indicators, and observable improvement in the extent, quality and effective management of protected areas across the region.

Note: Action 51 of the firstGreen Agenda Action Plan (2021–2030), concerning the development of a Western Balkans Biodiversity Strategic Plan, is consolidated in the Revised Action Plan (2025–2030) under Action 36, which establishes the development and implementation of the Plan in line with EU and global biodiversity frameworks.