Reinforce the engagement with the United Nations Rio Conventions (and synergy between the three) and join efforts in preparing a regional position on a global post-2020 biodiversity agenda

ROADMAP PROGRESS

The 2025 GARI finds that, as of the end of 2025, no formally agreed WB6 regional position paper on the global biodiversity agenda has been adopted. Parties to the three United Nations Rio Conventions, the UNFCCC, the UNCBD and the UNCCD, remain responsible for their implementation, while ongoing regional dialogue through the BDTF WB and the RCC provides a degree of coordination.

In relation to the three Rio Conventions, the most significant WB6-specific development of the reporting period was the endorsement of the Outline of the WB6 Biodiversity Strategic Plan 2030 in October 2025 through the Dubrovnik Declaration. Although not a formal submission under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Plan operationally functions as the region’s collective implementation position on the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: it adopts the Framework’s structure, translates its targets into a WB6-owned framework of five strategic goals and assigns governance responsibility to the BDTF WB. This makes it the most substantive expression to date of a shared WB6 stance on the post-2020 biodiversity agenda. The establishment in 2025 of the Thematic Group on Biodiversity Conservation and the Thematic Group on Ecosystem Restoration under the BDTF WB further strengthens the region’s capacity to contribute to international and EU processes with scientifically grounded, regionally consistent input.

A near-term obligation arises from the conclusion of CBD COP16 in Rome in February 2025, which adopted the templates for the seventh domestic-level reports due in 2026 ahead of the first global review of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP17 in Yerevan. This creates a concrete reporting deadline for parties to the Convention, other than Kosovo*, and meeting it credibly requires updated biodiversity strategies and action plans. The December 2025 SWG RRD assessment records that the majority of the WB6 do not have an active plan in place: that of Bosnia and Herzegovina expired in 2020 and that of Serbia in 2023, with a new plan being finalised for the period to 2031, Montenegro’s was evaluated as insufficiently implemented, and only North Macedonia maintains a valid strategy for the period from 2017 to 2027.

At global level, the Belém Joint Statement on the Rio Conventions, adopted at UNFCCC COP30 in November 2025, calls for synergistic implementation across the Paris Agreement, the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the land degradation neutrality targets of the UNCCD, noting that fragmented, convention-by-convention approaches undermine progress towards shared sustainability goals. For the WB6, this reinforces the coherence of addressing climate, biodiversity and land degradation through a single regional framework and strengthens the case for formalising a coordinated regional voice at future subsidiary body sessions across all three Conventions.

Note: Action 56 of the original Green Action Plan (2021–2030) is not retained as a standalone action in the Revised Action Plan (2025–2030).