The session opened with Ms. Claudia Rubio, Coordinator for Policy and Programmes at Women’s Environment and Development Organization, who presented the key features of the adopted Belem Gender Action Plan (GAP) for UNFCCC and its five priority areas. She emphasized the plan’s implementation-oriented nature, highlighting in particular Priority Area C, which calls for stronger synergies across conventions, and Priority Area E on monitoring and reporting. The discussion also reflected on key gains and trade-offs: progress included the explicit recognition of structurally excluded groups and the integration of sex- and age-disaggregated data, while notable gaps remain, such as the absence of clear indicators and the loss of strong human rights language.

On the other side , Amelia Arreguín Prado, Coordinator of the CBD Women’s Caucus, presented reflections from the mid term review of the CBD  Gender Plan of Action as a powerful tool to advance the implementation of Target 23. The current plan improves on previous iterations by identifying concrete actions, timelines, objectives, and responsible actors. Key achievements include the establishment of Gender Focal Points—although only 59 countries currently have them—as well as progressive elements such as the eradication of violence and explicit protections for women environmental defenders. To date, the CBD’s Gender Plan of Action has undergone its mid-term review, though participation has been limited, with only 20 Parties and 14 observers contributing, indicating the need for a more robust and inclusive review process.

The session followed with the presentation of progress of two ongoing projects that demonstrate how gender-responsive approaches can strengthen environmental outcomes.

First, Pamela Castillo, Director, World Conservation Society and Elena Finkbeiner, Director, Coastal Community Fisheries, Conservation International presented the Women Ocean Guardians: Empowering Women for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Large Marine Ecosystems project (GEF ID 11933), which promotes women’s leadership in the conservation and sustainable management of large marine ecosystems.

After, Frederike Klümper, Programme Director, Land Governance, TMG introduced the project Addressing Tenure Governance and Gender Equality in Land Rights to Strengthen Land Degradation Neutrality Initiatives (GEF ID 11501), highlighting concrete actions needed to secure women’s tenure rights and support sustainable land management.

During the expert panel, leading voices in gender and environment shared reflections on how the GEF can further strengthen gender-responsive environmental action. Lorena Aguilar, Executive Director, Kaschak Institute for Social Justice for Women and Girls, Binghamton University, emphasized the importance of ensuring that gender equality is integrated as a central element of environmental governance and sustainable development, rather than treated as an add-on.

Jeannette Gurung, Executive Director, WOCAN (Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management), highlighted the importance of strengthening women’s economic empowerment within environmental initiatives and ensuring that environmental financing mechanisms effectively reach women’s organizations and community-level initiatives.

Grounded insights from Ms Charlotte Clare illustrated how these dynamics play out on the ground. Through community-led research initiatives, Indigenous Karen communities are generating critical biodiversity knowledge,ranging from ethnobotanical studies to wildlife monitoring and ecosystem restoration. Women play a central role in these processes, blending traditional knowledge with scientific approaches, while also strengthening leadership and decision-making within their communities. At the same time, challenges related to funding, human resources, and data organisation continue to limit the scale and sustainability of these efforts.

From a government perspective, Ms Marina López Sincal reflected on ongoing efforts in Guatemala to institutionalise gender-responsive approaches within biodiversity governance. The establishment of a dedicated Gender Unit and the development of strategies to promote women’s participation signal important progress. She also highlighted the role of disaggregated data in informing inclusive policies, and the need for stronger governance frameworks to integrate community-generated data into national systems.

In her intervention, on behalf of the CBD Women’s Caucus, María José Lubertino delivered a clear and compelling call to action: there is no pathway to biodiversity conservation without gender justice. She underscored the structural inequalities that continue to limit women’s access to land, resources, finance, and decision-making, and highlighted that these injustices not only undermine rights, but also weaken biodiversity outcomes. Her intervention pointed to three key priorities: institutionalising women’s leadership in biodiversity governance, ensuring gender-responsive and accessible biodiversity finance, and strengthening data, monitoring, and accountability systems to make women’s contributions visible and measurable. She also emphasised the importance of implementing Target 23 and the Gender Plan of Action (2023–2030) as central pillars of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF).A key focus of the broader discussion was how to strengthen policy coherence and institutional coordination across gender and environmental agendas, and how biodiversity finance mechanisms can better support women-led and community-based initiatives.

The event also marked an important step toward COP17, under the upcoming Presidency of Armenia, with a strong emphasis on delivering an inclusive and action-oriented process that places gender equality at the centre of biodiversity action.

By bridging the outcomes of CSW70 with the implementation of the KM-GBF, the discussions reinforced that advancing gender equality is not only a matter of rights, but a prerequisite for effective, just, and transformative biodiversity outcomes