Mobilizes ten regional technical and scientific cooperation support centres worldwide to boost countries’ capacity for monitoring and reporting on Target 2 of the CBD’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) launched a new global partnership to help countries monitor and report on ecosystem restoration, including in Asia-Pacific, one of the most biodiverse yet ecologically threatened regions of the world.
Announced during the “Subregional dialogue on biodiversity monitoring and reporting with a focus on ecosystem restoration” in Bangkok, the new partnership will mobilize ten regional technical and scientific cooperation support centres worldwide to boost countries’ capacity for monitoring and reporting on Target 2 of the CBD’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Target 2 commits countries to ensure that at least 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration by 2030. The ten cooperation support centres will provide training, guidance and data validation as well as sharing lessons, good practices and innovations across countries and regions.
“Target 2 challenges us to bring degraded ecosystems back to life at a scale never attempted before, but without robust monitoring, we cannot know if we are on track,” said FAO Senior Forestry Officer Julian Fox. “By partnering with regional centres, starting here in Asia-Pacific, we help ensure that every country has the tools and support needed to measure progress, report it transparently, and learn from others.”
ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity to drive subregional cooperation
Asia-Pacific is home to critical ecosystems from tropical forests and coral reefs to high mountain grasslands. Countries in the region are already advancing ambitious restoration plans but face gaps in monitoring, technical expertise and funding. Robust monitoring systems remain essential for tracking progress, ensuring accountability and guiding investments and policy decisions.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Centre for Biodiversity has been selected to act as a hub for subregional cooperation. The Centre will coordinate closely with national focal points, research institutions and indigenous and local community networks to ensure that restoration monitoring reflects regional priorities, diverse ecosystems and the knowledge of local actors.
A dedicated Target 2 Helpdesk will also be established, ensuring continuous technical support to centres and countries. In the Asia-Pacific region, this will include tailored guidance on restoration monitoring in tropical forests, mangroves, coral reefs and other ecosystems central to regional livelihoods and climate resilience.
Support for national reporting
The Subregional dialogue on biodiversity monitoring and reporting with a focus on ecosystem restoration, held in Bangkok from 2 to 5 September 2025, brought together senior government officials, biodiversity focal points, technical experts, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, women and youth representatives, civil society actors, academia and development partners from across Asia and Oceania. The global series of dialogues were organized in the run-up to the submission of countries’ Seventh National Reports under the CBD, which are due by February 2026. The dialogue was jointly convened by FAO, the CBD Secretariat and the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, with financial support from the United Kingdom through the AIM4NatuRe (Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Nature Restoration) initiative and from the Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative.
Following Bangkok, regional workshops will be held in Latin America and Africa, culminating in a global stock take of ecosystem restoration progress at the 17th meeting to the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the CBD in 2026.
FAO serves as custodian agency for the headline indicator of Target 2 of the Global Biodiversity Framework – “area under restoration”. This role builds on FAO’s technical expertise in land monitoring, forest restoration, geospatial data and the development of global reporting platforms including the Framework for Ecosystem Monitoring (FERM), which tracks and accelerates the progress of global ecosystem restoration efforts. FAO also co-leads the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration together with the UN Environment Programme.
