Monitoring & Conservation Finance
Monitoring and Reporting
Achieving Target 3 requires sufficient monitoring and reporting to ensure protected areas and OECMs are established and managed in ways that maintain biodiversity in the long term, at both the site and systems level.
The following resources support monitoring and reporting across different aspects of protected areas and OECMs and are aligned with the Global Biodiversity Framework indicator architecture, which will continue to be refined over time.
Providing data to Protected Planet: a quick guide
The Protected Planet Initiative hosts several global databases and information resources that are jointly developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the UN Environment Programme, and managed by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).
This guide provides a concise overview of how countries can submit spatial and designation data to Protected Planet and what to expect after submission. The guide is available in
English,
Spanish,
French, and
Russian.
Guidance on Reporting Effectiveness Data to Protected Planet
This 2025 guidance manual by UNEP-WCMC and Protected Planet provides step by step instructions for submitting, managing, and applying protected area management effectiveness (PAME) data through the Global Database on Protected Area Management Effectiveness (GD-PAME). It supports countries in reporting on whether protected areas and OECMs are being effectively managed, in line with Target 3 monitoring and reporting needs.
WWF’s Biodiversity Monitoring Guide
This 2025 monitoring guide developed by WWF provides practical, field ready methodologies for biodiversity monitoring and adaptive management. It supports practitioners in designing monitoring systems that track ecological outcomes over time and align with Target 3 implementation at the site level.
The video “Reporting protected area data to Protected Planet” offers practical step by step guidance on how countries can update their national datasets. It outlines different reporting scenarios, including cases where only tabular updates are required, where spatial data must be revised, or where protected areas are missing from the dataset.
Sustainable Finance for Target 3
Achieving Target 3 requires sufficient funding and sustainable finance to ensure protected areas and OECMs are established and managed in ways to maintain biodiversity in the long term, at both the site and systems level.
Practice guidance for protected and conserved area finance
This 2025 guidance developed by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) provides practical recommendations for designing and implementing sustainable financing strategies for protected and conserved areas. It supports countries and practitioners in identifying appropriate finance mechanisms, strengthening financial planning, and improving the long term financial sustainability of protected areas and OECMs in line with Target 3 objectives.
Making Money Local
This video summarizes the CBD’s Making Money Local report which compiles over 30 case studies of realised cash-in-hand financial benefits from protected areas. This body of work encourages managers and stakeholders that they can be creative about income streams from protected and conserved areas without putting conservation values at risk.
Finance Solution Inventory
The Finance Solution Inventory is an African-led knowledge hub of finance solutions targeted toward conservation. The Inventory is a product of the Sustainable Finance Coalition and showcases finance solutions from a diverse and inclusive network of collaborators and contributors. The initiative highlights Collective Action in financing nature at scale, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in driving sustainable finance.
Finance solutions are represented in the Inventory through an interactive Inventory Wheel, where each solution is unpacked in an easy-to-understand Solution Sheet. Each Solution Sheet describes the type of finance solution, the Building Blocks as critical to success and provides real-world examples of tailor-made finance solutions in practice. Currently there are 10 Solution Sheets on the Inventory, from Bonds to Funds, to Nature Credits and Environmental Fiscal Benefits.
The Coalition thanks it’s Finance for Nature Ecosystem for funding, endorsement and collaboration. Click here to access the Inventory
Sustainable Finance Fact Sheets
The following fact sheets, developed by the IUCN WCPA Sustainable Finance Specialist Group, provide examples of different options being used to fund protected areas and OECMs in across the world:
Collaborative management partnerships (CMPs)
Protected and Conserved Areas (PCA) entrance fees
BIOFIN Resources
BIOFIN was initiated in response to the urgent global need to divert more finance from all possible sources towards global and national biodiversity goals, as highlighted during the 2010 CBD COP 10 in Nagoya.
Some of BIOFIN available resources are:
BIOFIN Workbook 2024
The BIOFIN Workbook provides tools to help nations conduct policy reviews, estimate biodiversity spending as well as financial needs and design biodiversity finance plans. Link to the Workbook.
Biodiversity Finance Course
This course will provide you with the tools to assess the policy, institutional, and economic context for biodiversity finance; conduct a financial needs assessment to achieve a country’s biodiversity goals; and develop a biodiversity finance plan that identifies the most suitable finance solutions. Link to the course.
Results-Based Budgeting for Biodiversity – A guidebook
Results-based budgeting (RBB) offers a strategic approach that aligns funding with specific, measurable outcomes, ensuring resources are used effectively and efficiently to achieve concrete conservation results. Click here to learn more.