The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has launched its new strategy, setting out the Centre’s priorities and focus for the next four years in its mission to develop knowledge and capacity for a nature-positive world.

The “Nature and People” strategy for 2022-25 has been designed to deliver the Centre’s contribution to major United Nations’ programmes on nature and sustainable development, including the UN Environment Programme 2022-2025 Medium Term Strategy, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the implementation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, expected to be adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming later this year.

Our new strategy places a clear emphasis on where UNEP-WCMC can make a difference, supporting our partners to deliver on the vision of a world living in harmony with nature.

The new strategy signals how UNEP-WCMC will have an impact, in four related “impact areas”, supported by the Centre’s “innovation areas” on digital transformation, science, and policy guidance.      

The Centre’s four priority impact areas are:

• Nature conserved: covering work to ensure sustainability in the international trade in wildlife, promote nature connectivity, and support governments and others to strengthen networks of protected and conserved areas
• Nature restored: sharing knowledge and insights on the importance of restoring land and ocean ecosystems, as well as the opportunities to improve sustainability and resilience of agricultural systems
• Nature-based solutions: strengthening the use of nature-based solutions to climate change and championing the dependence of human health on the health of the natural world
• Nature economy: identifying leverage points to transform global economic systems, including through providing data platforms and metrics to help governments, businesses and investors understand impacts and dependencies on nature

UNEP-WCMC is also developing an associated Impact Measurement Framework to understand progress in delivering on the strategy and the contribution of the Centre to global ambitions for nature and sustainable development. 

Commenting on the 2022-25 strategy, UNEP-WCMC Director Neville Ash said:

“Our new strategy places a clear emphasis on where UNEP-WCMC can make a difference, supporting our partners to deliver on the vision of a world living in harmony with nature. This vision requires systemic changes across all sectors of government and society, and the Centre will continue to catalyse and monitor that change, working with partners across all sectors to ensure policies and action are informed by the latest data, knowledge and insight.”

UNEP-WCMC operates as a collaboration between the UN Environment Programme and WCMC, a UK-registered charity.

WCMC CEO Jonny Hughes added: “We are now at an eleventh-hour moment for the future of nature. Governments, business and wider society are slowly turning towards a nature-positive future but they need the right intelligence to act in time, and in an informed way. This is where UNEP-WCMC’s knowledge, insights, data and scientific expertise will be so critical.

“Our new strategy – defined by four impact areas focused on protecting and restoring nature and achieving nature-based solutions and a nature literate economy – clearly explains how we plan to address the nature crisis. Our strategy also sets ambitions to innovate in our science, digital transformation and policy work, nationally and internationally."