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Benefits of the Contributions for Nature Platform

The Contributions for Nature platform serves the key need for documenting contributions for nature from ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� as a Union. It documents potential contributions in a quantitative way, complementary to, and interacting with other platforms which allow documentation of qualitative pledges. Benefits include:

• ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Members and other institutions can document their potential contributions towards global targets for nature in a given place.
• Networking and establishment of partnerships.
• Results can support planning, reporting, communications, and resource mobilisation within organisations and further afield.
• Action planning to fill gaps at national or regional level.
• Establishment of a basis for monitoring of delivery of actual contributions by 2030 and beyond
• Implementation of the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� “One Programme” to document overall potential contributions towards global targets.

Who can document contributions?

In the first phase, the users – and primary beneficiaries – are the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Membership of non-governmental organisations, indigenous peoples’ organisations, and governments, and other ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� constituents. Specifically:

• Non-governmental organisations and indigenous peoples’ organisations are likely to report on individual sites where they undertake conservation or restoration actions, for example individual , often , customary territories, etc.
• Government Agencies and Subnational Governments often also have spatial footprints of conservation and restoration under their jurisdictions, for example for national parks agencies and forest departments.
• State Members may find the platform most useful in understanding the potential contributions of other ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Member categories and institutions nested within their national territory.
• ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� National and Regional Committees can serve a crucial role in advancing inclusion, peer support, outreach, and training for the platform at national levels.
• ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Commissions and the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Secretariat can also document potential contributions where their conservation and restoration actions are spatial, as with, for example, funding mechanisms like the and project agencies, and the Save Our Species Programme.

Beyond the first phase, possibilities will be explored for extending the coverage of the platform across additional global goals for nature, eg those for aquatic environments. The potential for expanding the scope to allow documentation from other non-state actors beyond the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� constituency will also be explored. The , which documents success stories in a qualitative format, is an existing and wholly complementary mechanism, which can already be used to document such actions.

Flexibility for inclusion

The Contributions for Nature platform encompasses two interacting systems: one for data entry by users and validation, a second for the public display of the validated data.

Given the necessary focus on spatial data, and variation around the world in the technology and capacity to handle such data, the Contributions for Nature platform offers a range of options for data input, for example:

• Upload of Geographic Information System files
• Selection of pre-determined units (eg protected areas, key biodiversity areas)
• Drawing polygons on screen
• Entering a point (latitude and longitude) and associated km² area value

Users are also able to enter non-spatial documentation associated with their work, for example, type of conservation or restoration action, number of women and men employed in and benefitting from the work, timelines, needs for funding or technical support, narrative descriptions, and photographs. Finally, they can tag other ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� constituents as partners in delivering the potential contribution, reflecting the many partnerships necessary to deliver effective conservation, and emphasing the interconnectness of ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� as a Union.

Background

In February 2021, the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� membership approved the new Nature 2030: ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Programme 2021-2024. Section 8 of the Programme, mandates the development of

“a digital platform where all parts of the Union can voluntarily share their committed and realised contributions to meeting the Impact Targets as well as commitments against global policy targets such as the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.”

Discussions for this vision date back a decade, to allow constituents of the Union, and potentially in the future also other non-state actors, to document spatially their intended contributions towards the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Programme and by extension, towards the Global Biodiversity Framework, Paris Agreement, and SDGs. The beta version of the platform was unveiled in the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Director General’s report to the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Members Assembly on 8 September 2021, and the commits that “������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Members, supported by the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� National and Regional Committees, commit to deliver contributions to the Nature 2030 ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Programme and global goals for nature, and document those through the Contributions for Nature Platform.”.  

The beta version of the Contributions for Nature platform was unveiled in the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Director General’s report to the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Members Assembly on 8 September 2021, in the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France. The fully-operational platform went live across the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� constituency in June 2022, and its Visualisation Module will be launched to the public in October 2022.

Contributions for Nature advisory board

The Contributions for Nature Strategic Initiative Advisory Board helps to ensure the maximum utility of the Contributions for Nature platform to the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� constituency and to nature conservation overall.

Learn more about the advisory board