The CBD Women’s Caucus took part in the Second Session of the Ad Hoc Expert Team on Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture, held from 30 June to 2 July 2026 in Rome, Italy, with both in-person and virtual participation. The meeting created an important space to engage in global conversations on biodiversity for food and agriculture, especially as work continues on the Second Report on The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture.
For the CBD Women’s Caucus, being present in these discussions matters. Biodiversity policies and reporting processes need to reflect the lived realities, knowledge, leadership of women including women from  Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The Caucus’s participation helped keep attention on the people who are already caring for, restoring and sustaining biodiversity in their daily lives.

It is precisely to address this gap that the Women’s Land Rights Initiative (WLRI) was established, a dynamic community dedicated to the systematic integration of women’s land rights across the three Rio Conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The Women’s Roadmap to CBD COP17 continues…

When the CBD Women’s Caucus set out to support Armenian women’s preparations for CBD COP17, the goal was clear and ambitious: make sure that when the world’s biodiversity negotiators gather in Yerevan this October, Armenian women and gender justice advocates walk in not as observers, but as informed, connected, and organised participants ready to shape the outcome.

Over two months, that intention became the Armenian Women Taking Action for Nature: Preparations for CBD COP17, a four-part training series co-created with the  COP17 Armenian Presidency, the CBD Secretariat, and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. What unfolded was more than a training programme. It became a genuine community: 60+ participants from across Armenia, 15+ expert speakers, four partner organisations, and more than 20 presentations and resources shared and revisited through a living Miro Board  all built on countless questions, discussions, and connections that outlasted every session.

This is the story of that journey, session by session, and where it leads next.

The CBD Women’s Caucus is pleased to share its 2025 Annual Report, capturing a year of feminist advocacy, knowledge production, capacity development, community building, and collective action to advance the rights and leadership of women and girls in all their diversity within biodiversity governance.

Throughout 2025, we strengthened our engagement in key CBD policy and technical processes, coordinated advocacy, contributed to biodiversity finance discussions, produced policy analysis and technical submissions, expanded capacity-building opportunities, and built stronger connections across biodiversity, climate, land rights, and gender justice movements.

The numbers tell part of the story: 810 members across 110 countries, 17 policy statements, 9 technical submissions, 29 policy and technical meetings, 18 webinars and trainings, 26 partnerships, and approximately 78,000 people reached. Behind these figures are the knowledge, commitment, and solidarity of our members, partner organisations, and allies around the world.

All of this took place amid accelerating biodiversity loss, attacks on women’s rights and human rights defenders, growing challenges to multilateralism, and declining funding for international cooperation. Despite chronic underfunding and heavy workloads, the Caucus continued to grow, organise, advocate, and strengthen its collective voice.

Our 2025 Annual Report is therefore more than a record of activities. It shows what collective action can achieve—and why the women’s organisations and movements sustaining biodiversity action worldwide need greater political, institutional, and financial support.

Women’s land rights are not a side issue in biodiversity governance — they are at its very heart. Women hold invaluable knowledge of local plants, ecosystems, and sustainable farming practices, yet fewer than 15% of landowners worldwide are women. Their rights to land are systematically violated due to discriminatory legal and cultural norms, and this structural inequality directly undermines the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) and the CBD Gender Plan of Action.

It is precisely to address this gap that the Women’s Land Rights Initiative (WLRI) was established, a dynamic community dedicated to the systematic integration of women’s land rights across the three Rio Conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

As the financial mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and several other multilateral environmental agreements, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) plays a pivotal role in translating global commitments into action on the ground. While Parties negotiate biodiversity targets, adopt Gender Plans of Action, and agree on rights-based approaches under the CBD, it is through the GEF that many of these commitments are ultimately financed and implemented.

For the CBD Women’s Caucus, engaging in GEF processes is therefore a natural extension of our advocacy under the Convention. The principles we work to advance within CBD negotiations—including the implementation of Target 23, the CBD Gender Plan of Action, meaningful participation, human rights, and equitable access to finance—must also shape the governance, policies, and funding modalities of the GEF. This understanding guided our engagement at the 8th GEF Assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where we participated as active members of the newly established GEF Women and Gender Caucus.

The Regional Geospatial Forum for Inclusive Biodiversity Action was held from 9–12 June 2026 at the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) in Nairobi, Kenya. The forum was convened by the RCMRD through its Regional Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity, Forests and Seascape Ecosystem Management (RCoE) as part of the Africa Regional Centres of Excellence (ArcX) Programme. The event brought together approximately 100 participants, including representatives of women, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), youth organizations, government institutions, civil society organizations, academia, and regional partners from 24 countries across Eastern and Southern Africa. The primary objective of the forum was to strengthen inclusive biodiversity governance by promoting the practical application of geospatial technologies to support community-led biodiversity conservation, monitoring, and reporting under the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).

The forum was designed to contribute directly to the implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, particularly Target 21, which seeks to ensure that the best available knowledge is accessible to decision-makers; Target 22, which promotes the full, equitable, inclusive, effective and gender-responsive participation of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, women and youth in biodiversity related decision making; and Target 23, which calls for gender justice and a gender responsive approach in biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. Through dialogue, practical demonstrations, field-based learning and collaborative planning, the meeting emphasized that biodiversity conservation cannot succeed without recognizing the knowledge, leadership and stewardship of local communities, particularly women, who continue to play indispensable roles in managing natural resources and safeguarding ecosystems.

The unique features of the forum were its strong emphasis on translating geospatial science into practical tools that communities can use to strengthen conservation outcomes. Rather than focusing solely on technical presentations, the programme demonstrated how accessible geospatial technologies, including digital mapping, spatial data, geographic information systems (GIS) and Story Maps, can improve documentation of conservation activities, support evidence-based decision making, enhance biodiversity monitoring, and increase the visibility of community-led initiatives. This practical approach highlighted the growing importance of integrating scientific innovation with Indigenous and local knowledge to support inclusive biodiversity governance.

The four-day programme combined high-level policy dialogue, country presentations, thematic discussions, practical geospatial training, collaborative breakout sessions and a field visit to Ngong Forest, providing participants with opportunities to observe ecosystem restoration and community conservation practices firsthand. These diverse learning approaches fostered regional collaboration and encouraged participants to identify practical solutions that can be adapted within their respective countries. The CBD Women’s Caucus was represented, reaffirming that women are not merely beneficiaries of biodiversity programmes but are leaders, knowledge holders, innovators and custodians of biodiversity.