Key findings

2.1Headline finding

ReportedEQL 4NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-FIN-006

In 2023, global public and private flows with direct negative impacts on nature were estimated at USD 7.3 trillion, against about USD 220 billion directed to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Implication

The two IPBES assessments agree on the order of magnitude and differ in the split and the year. Harmful flows are about 33 times the flows directed to nature, so closing the Framework finance gap of USD 700 billion a year depends on redirecting existing flows as much as on new money²⁹. Fewer than 1% of publicly reporting companies mention their impacts on biodiversity in their reports⁹.

What would move it

Complete 2024 and 2025 finance reports, reform of harmful incentives and uptake of nature-related disclosure would each move this finding.

2.2Biodiversity

1. ReportedEQL 5NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-BIO-001

   The IUCN Red List update of July 2026 covers 175,909 species, of which 49,505 are threatened with extinction.¹²

2. ReportedEQL 4NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-BIO-002

   The IPBES Global Assessment estimated that around 1 million of 8 million animal and plant species face extinction, that 75% of the land surface is significantly altered, that 66% of the ocean area faced increasing cumulative impacts by 2014 and that over 85% of wetland area has been lost.⁷

3. ReportedEQL 4NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-BIO-003

   Peer-reviewed work places the current extinction rate above 100 extinctions per million species-years against a planetary boundary below 10, and finds the vertebrate loss rate of the last century up to 100 times the background rate.²³²⁶

4. ReportedEQL 5NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-BIO-005

   Forests cover 4.14 billion hectares (32% of land); gross deforestation was 10.9 million hectares a year in 2015 to 2025 against 17.6 million in 1990 to 2000, and tropical primary forest loss was 4.3 million hectares in 2025, down 36% from the record of 2024 but 46% above a decade ago.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷

2.3Climate forcing

1. ReportedEQL 4NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-CLI-004

   Bleaching-level heat stress affected about 84% of the world’s coral reef area between early 2023 and mid-2025, in all three reef ocean basins, against 68.2% in 2014 to 2017, and the Global Tipping Points Report finds warm-water coral reefs crossing their thermal tipping point at 1.4 °C of warming.¹⁸¹⁹²²

2.4Finance

1. ReportedEQL 4NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-FIN-006

   Global public and private flows with direct negative impacts on nature were estimated at USD 7.3 trillion in 2023, against about USD 220 billion directed to conservation and sustainable use.⁹⁸

2. ReportedEQL 4NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-FIN-007

   Parties reported USD 32.7 billion of biodiversity finance from international public, domestic public and private sources in 2023, and the 2025 milestone of USD 20 billion a year of international finance was likely not met.²¹

2.5Governance

1. ReportedEQL 4NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-GOV-008

   By the time of the global report 162 Parties (83%) had national targets aligned with the Framework, fewer than half of reporting Parties considered their national targets on track for any global target.¹

2. ReportedEQL 4NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-GOV-009

   The CBD global report records protected and conserved areas covering 18.4% of terrestrial and inland waters and 23.2% of marine areas under national jurisdiction in 2025, and 10% of the global ocean, against a target of at least 30% of each by 2030.²⁴

2.6Minerals

1. ReportedEQL 4NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-MIN-010

   Mining potentially influences 50 million square kilometres of land, with 8% coinciding with Protected Areas, 7% with Key Biodiversity Areas and 16% with remaining wilderness, and 82% of mining areas target materials needed for renewable energy production.²⁸

2.7Food

1. ReportedEQL 4NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-FOO-011

   Crops that depend on animal pollination contribute 35% of global crop production volume, and 5 to 8% of current global crop production, worth USD 235 billion to USD 577 billion a year (2015 dollars), is directly attributable to animal pollination.¹⁰

2.8Systemic

1. Expert inputEQL 2NRF-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-SYS-012

   The leading compound pathway for 2027 testing is a hot, fire-prone season that coincides with land conversion and mining expansion in biodiversity-rich regions. § scenario

Notes

Numbers are the edition’s reference numbers, so a note reads the same in every chapter. The full list, with every source and its licence, is in Annex C. Annex C, references

1. 9IPBES, Summary for Policymakers of the Thematic Assessment Report on Business and Biodiversity, considered at the twelfth session of the Plenary, Manchester, 2026 (layout edition of 16 June 2026). Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn. Observation year 2023 (financial flows). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
2. 8IPBES, Summary for Policymakers of the Thematic Assessment Report on the Interlinkages among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health (Nexus assessment), accepted at the eleventh session of the Plenary, Windhoek. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
3. 2Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Global Report on Collective Progress in the Implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (document CBD/COP/17/INF/7), full report, Montreal, 2026. Observation year 2023 (finance 2020 to 2023; protected area coverage 2025). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
4. 12IUCN, From desert frog to deep-sea molluscs, remarkable species at risk: IUCN Red List (press release on the 2026-1 update), Gland, 9 July 2026. International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
5. 7IPBES, Summary for Policymakers of the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn, 2019. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn. Observation year 2019 (evidence mostly to 2016). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
6. 23Richardson, K. et al., Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries, Science Advances 9(37), eadh2458, 2023 (open-access full text read). American Association for the Advancement of Science. Observation year 2023. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
7. 26Ceballos, G., Ehrlich, P.R., Barnosky, A.D., García, A., Pringle, R.M. and Palmer, T.M., Accelerated modern human-induced species losses: entering the sixth mass extinction, Science Advances 1(5), e1400253, 2015 (abstract read). American Association for the Advancement of Science. Observation year 2015. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
8. 15FAO, Global deforestation slows, but forests remain under pressure (Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025 key findings), Rome, 21 October 2025. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. Observation year 2025 (assessment period 1990 to 2025). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
9. 16World Resources Institute, Tropical Rainforest Loss Drops 36% in 2025, but Fires Threaten Global Progress (release with University of Maryland GLAD Lab data), Washington, 29 April 2026. World Resources Institute, Washington. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
10. 17Global Forest Watch, Global Forest Watch’s 2025 Tree Cover Loss Data Explained (data and methods note), World Resources Institute, Washington, 2026. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
11. 18NOAA Coral Reef Watch, Current Global Bleaching: Status Update and Data Submission (status page). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park. Observation year 2025 (event from 1 January 2023). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
12. 19NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, World’s Fourth Mass Coral Bleaching Event Likely Ended in 2025 (news release), 2 June 2026. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
13. 22Global Tipping Points, Global Tipping Points Report 2025 (summary of key messages on the programme page), University of Exeter and partners, Exeter, 2025. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
14. 1Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, State of Biodiversity Action: Summary and Key Messages of the Global Report on Collective Progress in the Implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Montreal, 2026. Observation year 2026 (national reports of 2026; indicator data to 2025). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
15. 4Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, decision 15/4, Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Montreal, December 2022. Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal. Observation year 2022. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
16. 28Sonter, L.J., Dade, M.C., Watson, J.E.M. and Valenta, R.K., Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity, Nature Communications 11, 4174, 2020 (open-access abstract read). Springer Nature. Observation year 2020. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
17. 10IPBES, Summary for Policymakers of the Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production, Bonn, 2016. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn. Observation year 2015 (values in 2015 US dollars). Accessed 2026-11-03.back