Draft, not yet released. In stewardship review. Not indexed until the first approved release.

Global Biodiversity Risk and Resilience Report 2026: Baseline Edition, The State of the World’s Biodiversity and Ecosystems.

The first annual edition of the biodiversity report. It fixes the 2026 reference state of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems, and the model, voice and positions, against which the 2027 edition will be read.

Read the executive summaryStart with chapter 1Cite this report
Editor
Saeed Valadbaygi
Desk
GCRI Systems Evidence
Publisher of record
GCRI for the Nexus Consortium
Evidence close
30 September 2026
Status
Draft in stewardship review; not yet released
ReportsGS-11

Global Sector Risk and Resilience

Global Biodiversity 2026

Baseline Edition 2026NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINEGCRI for the Nexus Consortium
Findings12each with its status and source
Sources48numbered, editor first
Chapters and annexes11plus the executive summary
Indicators15in the data appendix, with CSV and JSON

01 · Status

Status and boundaries.

This edition governs nothing and confers no certification. It records where the global evidence stood at the 2026 baseline. Every value resolves to its source or to its stated method; where neither exists, the edition says so instead of filling the gap.

Publication ID
NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0
Series alias
NR-SEC-GS-11-2026-BL
Identifier status
Series alias and evidence cut are provisional until the owner confirms them. No UNI is minted.
Family · class
Global Sector Report GS-11 Biodiversity and Ecosystems · Baseline Edition (inaugural annual)
Lifecycle state
Global Sector Report GS-11 Biodiversity · Baseline Edition (inaugural annual)
Publication date
October 2026
Evidence close
30 September 2026 · cut DC-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-B0
Reproducibility
sourced values cited; analytical values reproducible from stated parameters
Access class
PUBLIC-SAFE DERIVATIVE
Review
five passes scheduled before release (in Annex C)
Designed for
strategic planning · nature-risk screening · portfolio discussion · research · public communication
Not for
government assessment · official warning · rating · certification · investment advice · underwriting · procurement · operational authorisation
Registry
record NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE · current-version pointer at release
Corrections
registry correction pathway · history in Annex C
AI use
disclosed in Annex C
Next edition
NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2027-v1.0.0 · 2027 annual
Licence
text CC BY 4.0 · data on the terms of each source
Desk identifier
Collection

02 · Key messages

What the edition finds.

Five of the questions the edition answers, each with its status. The executive summary has all of them, with their sources.

  1. The Red List counts 49,505 threatened species of 175,909 assessed; IPBES estimated around 1 million of 8 million.

    How many species are at risk?Reported

  2. About 18.4% of terrestrial and inland waters, 23.2% of marine areas under national jurisdiction and 10% of the global ocean were protected or conserved in 2025.

    How much land and sea is protected?Reported

  3. Gross deforestation is lower than in 1990 to 2000 but still 10.9 million hectares a year.

    Is forest loss falling?Reported

  4. About 84% of reef area was exposed to bleaching-level heat stress in 2023 to 2025.

    What is happening to reefs?Reported

  5. USD 7.3 trillion in flows with negative impacts against about USD 220 billion for nature.

    Where does the money go?Reported

All key messages and the headline finding

03 · Contents

Eight chapters and three annexes.

  1. ·

    Executive summary

    The edition on a few pages: the abstract, the key messages, the headline finding and what each steward reads in it.

  2. 1

    Chapter 1. Nature is the layer under every other system

    Part I describes systems and their couplings.

  3. 2

    Chapter 2. Key findings

    Twelve findings carry the biodiversity baseline.

  4. 3

    Chapter 3. Systems and sectors at baseline

  5. 4

    Chapter 4. Risks and capability

    Four biodiversity risk objects open the portfolio.

  6. 5

    Chapter 5. Hot, fire-prone season with land conversion and mining expansion

    A conditional statement under stated assumptions, never a prediction.

  7. 6

    Chapter 6. Readings from the other desks

    The biodiversity baseline is read through each steward’s lens, then once as a whole.

  8. 7

    Chapter 7. The 2027 agenda

    Eight bounded questions open the 2027 biodiversity agenda.

  9. 8

    Chapter 8. Systems in depth

    One section per system: its state at evidence close, its exposures and what the operational series will watch.

  10. A

    Annex A. Methodology

    How the edition was made: methods, the model card, the evidence cut and its age, the acceptance record and the glossary.

  11. B

    Annex B. Data appendix

    The indicator set with its sources, the source registers, the licences of every kind of material and the formats of the edition.

  12. C

    Annex C. References and record

    Every source the edition rests on, the publication record, the corrections log and the open record.

List of figures (4)
  1. S.1Financial flows linked to nature, 2023 (USD billion)
  2. 1.1How large are the flows against nature compared with those for it? Financial flows, 2023 (USD billion)
  3. 1.2Couplings between the five systems
  4. 2.1Financial flows linked to nature, 2023 (USD billion)
List of tables (46)
  1. 1.1Coupling matrix: from the row system to the column system
  2. 1.2Pairs of systems where both directions are rated strong
  3. 3.1Each domain read in words, not scored
  4. 3.2Sectors: baseline evidence and the exposure to watch
  5. 4.1Capabilities on the ladder of evidence: listed, exists, demonstrated, tested
  6. 6.1The quarterly rhythm every edition follows
  7. 6.2Who contributes what each quarter
  8. 6.32027 biodiversity readiness pack
  9. 6.4Standards and regulatory watch
  10. 6.5Peer-reviewed science and assessments
  11. 6.6Institutional flagships and global reviews
  12. 6.7Statistics, area and forest data
  13. 6.8Law, standards, finance and disclosure
  14. 7.1Objects proposed for the first operational quarter
  15. 7.2Universe 2027: evidence pack for the biodiversity candidate mission
  16. 7.3Handoffs and routing
  17. 7.4Routing rules by publication class
  18. 7.5Feeds watched from 2027
  19. 7.6Signals at baseline
  20. 8.1State at baseline
  21. 8.2State at baseline
  22. 8.3State at baseline
  23. 8.4State at baseline
  24. 8.5State at baseline
  25. A.1Methods
  26. A.2Coupling strength scale (matrix and model card)
  27. A.3Status grammar
  28. A.4From the baseline cut to the federation cut
  29. A.5Evidence age and coverage
  30. A.6Coverage by system at baseline
  31. A.7Designed empty states: what is not bound, what would fill it and why
  32. A.8Quality dimensions at baseline
  33. A.9Publication acceptance record
  34. A.10The status every value carries
  35. A.11Series terms
  36. A.12Abbreviations used in this edition
  37. A.13Technical annex
  38. B.1Global baseline indicator set
  39. B.2Global baseline indicator set
  40. B.3Global source register
  41. B.4Regional reading: biodiversity across ten clusters
  42. B.5How countries appear in the biodiversity edition
  43. B.6National Baseline Editions in the 2026 programme
  44. B.7Licences of each kind of material
  45. B.8This edition in every format
  46. C.1Release path for this version

04 · GCRI reading

How GCRI reads this edition.

The evidence supports reading biodiversity as the foundation layer of the WEFH+B system. Threat, finance and governance indicators all point down or flat, and heat adds new pressure. Evidence is strongest for species counts, forest area and finance flows, and weakest for ecosystem condition, freshwater and marine trends and indicator coverage.

BIO-001 · FIN-006 · GOV-008 · SYS-012

Chapter 6, lenses and readings

05 · Publication record

Version, dates and contributors.

The identity of this edition as its title pages record it. A review copy has no DOI; the DOI is issued at deposit.

Publication ID
NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0
Version
1.0.0, review copy
Edition date
Evidence close
Status
Draft under stewardship review; not yet released
Editor
Saeed Valadbaygi
Publisher of record
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Licence of the text
CC BY 4.0
DOI
Issued at deposit, on release
Previous edition
none: first edition of the series
Next edition
NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2027-v1.0.0

Contributors

RoleContributionBy
ConceptualisationSeries architecture and the biodiversity modelS. Valadbaygi (ed.)
MethodologyBaseline method, dependency scoring and status grammarReports editorial team, GCRI
Investigation · data curationSource review of biodiversity releases, statistics and the peer-reviewed literature to evidence closeReports editorial team, GCRI
Writing, original draftAll chapters; AI-assisted drafting, disclosed belowEditor · editorial team
Writing, review and editingFive review passes before releaseSteward reviewers (scheduled)
VisualisationPages, figures and tables in the Nexus design standardReports editorial team, GCRI
SupervisionEdition governance, registry record and depositS. Valadbaygi (ed.)

Review before release

PassScopeByState
1Scientific and technicalGCRI · key TScheduled
2Reproducibility of analytical valuesGCRI · key TScheduled
3Public meaning and claimsThe Global Risks Forum (GRF) · key MScheduled
4Finance-readiness boundaryThe Global Risks Alliance (GRA) · key FScheduled
5Regional and sector context, safeguardsRegional consortia · key NScheduled

AI assistance was used for drafting, consistency checks and page composition. Every number, citation and status label was checked against its source by the editorial team before freeze. No AI system is recorded as an author or a reviewer, and no AI output is printed as fact without a source.

06 · Downloads

Read it in print, take the data.

FormatWhat it isStateGet it
Complete edition, print or PDFA4 or Letter, chosen in the print dialog: cover, contents, every chapter and annex, endnotes and running heads Review copyOpen for print
Indicators, CSV15 indicators with unit, year, status and source On this pageDownload
Indicators, JSONThe same indicators with the edition’s identity and licence On this pageDownload
Findings, CSV12 findings with status, evidence-quality level and references On this pageDownload
Citation, BibTeXFor LaTeX and reference managers On this pageDownload
Citation, RISFor Zotero, EndNote and Mendeley On this pageDownload
PDF, A4 and US LetterPrinted from the edition pack in the Reports print design, with the publication ID, the evidence cut and the pack hash in its metadata; signed with its DOI at release At releaseNot yet issued
Data packageEvery table of the edition as CSV and JSON, with the citation files (CSL-JSON, BibTeX, RIS), built with the site With the editionAnnex B, data

The print and the files are produced from the same edition pack as the web pages, so they always agree. Until release they are review copies.

07 · Cite

Cite this report.

This edition is a draft in stewardship review. Cite it as a draft; the DOI and the UNI are issued at deposit, and the citation then names them.
Catalogue keyNR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE

Standards applied to NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE

Cite as

S. Valadbaygi (ed.), Global Biodiversity Risk and Resilience Report 2026: Baseline Edition, The State of the World’s Biodiversity and Ecosystems.. Reports, Baseline Edition 2026. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) for the Nexus Consortium, Toronto, 2026. NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE. DOI at deposit.

Applied

NS-1 catalogue identity (a UNI is allocated at deposit and resolves to this record), NS-2 citation and attribution, NS-3b dataset metadata, NS-5 figures and maps, NS-12 software and AI disclosure.

Monitoring

Corrections are new versions with a published notice; the earlier version stays resolvable.

An attestation is evidence, not a certificate. Nexus Standards parts are preparatory working drafts (2026).

APA 7
Valadbaygi, S. (Ed.). (2026). Global Biodiversity Risk and Resilience Report 2026: Baseline Edition, The State of the World’s Biodiversity and Ecosystems. (Baseline Edition 2026, Report No. NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE) [Draft under review]. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI). https://therisk.global/nexus-reports/editions/gs-11/
Chicago
Valadbaygi, Saeed, ed. Global Biodiversity Risk and Resilience Report 2026: Baseline Edition, The State of the World’s Biodiversity and Ecosystems.. Baseline Edition 2026. Nexus Reports NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE. Draft under review. Toronto: The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI), 2026. https://therisk.global/nexus-reports/editions/gs-11/.
BibTeX
@techreport{NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE,
  editor      = {Valadbaygi, Saeed},
  title       = {{Global Biodiversity Risk and Resilience Report 2026: Baseline Edition, The State of the World’s Biodiversity and Ecosystems.}},
  institution = {The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)},
  address     = {Toronto},
  year        = {2026},
  type        = {Nexus Reports, Baseline Edition 2026},
  number      = {NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE},
  note        = {Draft under stewardship review; not yet released. DOI assigned at deposit},
  url         = {https://therisk.global/nexus-reports/editions/gs-11/}
}
RIS
TY  - RPRT
ED  - Valadbaygi, Saeed
TI  - Global Biodiversity Risk and Resilience Report 2026: Baseline Edition, The State of the World’s Biodiversity and Ecosystems.
T3  - Nexus Reports
ET  - Baseline Edition 2026
PY  - 2026
PB  - The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
CY  - Toronto
SN  - NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE
UR  - https://therisk.global/nexus-reports/editions/gs-11/
N1  - Draft under stewardship review; not yet released. DOI assigned at deposit.
LA  - en
ER  -
NR-CIT-1 (house style)
S. Valadbaygi (ed.), Global Biodiversity Risk and Resilience Report 2026: Baseline Edition, The State of the World’s Biodiversity and Ecosystems.. Nexus Reports, Baseline Edition 2026. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) for the Nexus Consortium, Toronto, 2026. NR-SECTOR-BIODIVERSITY-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE. DOI at deposit.
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  • CC BY 4.0
  • Evidence close 30 September 2026

CC BY 4.0 Free to read. Text and figures: CC BY 4.0. Data: CC0 1.0. Authors keep copyright. Published by GCRI Canada.

Sector signature

The sectors behind Global Biodiversity and Ecosystems.

A reading aid: the sectors the findings run through and how strongly they depend on each other.

Select corners · hover lines6 / 15 relations

Signature

Biodiversity and its partners

Biodiversity gives pollination and soils to food (0.6), watershed regulation to water (0.5) and zoonotic spillover and medicines to health (0.4).

W · E · I · F · H · B

Sectors
4 of 6
Relations
6 of 15
Coupling
0.46 share of total

Strongest relations in play

  • Food → Biodiversity · land conversion0.6
  • Water → Food · irrigation0.8
  • Water → Biodiversity · environmental flows0.6
  • Food → Health · nutrition0.7
Teaching values for a typical city-region, not measurements for any place. Coupling is the summed strength of the relations in play, as a share of all fifteen.
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation

Science · evidence · measurement

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