Our delegation participated actively and substantively in all five roundtables over three days of intensive dialogue. We drew on our knowledge and experience, shared concrete examples, and presented the Caucus’s initiatives. We also identified the gaps and needs that must be addressed to ensure women’s perspectives are reflected in the global report.

Throughout, we stayed aligned with Caucus policy. We built on key messages from our own analysis and evaluation, which we had previously submitted officially as input to the global review.

Key messages reflected in the outcomes

Across the roundtables, the discussions reflected elements the Caucus championed, including:

• mainstreaming commitments under Targets 22 and 23 into national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs)
• using explicit language that names indigenous peoples and local communities, women and youth
• integrating rights-based and gender-responsive approaches across the board, along with the other considerations set out in Section C of the Framework
• developing an indicator system to assess social and gender dimensions, collecting both qualitative and quantitative disaggregated data
• ensuring direct, predictable and flexible access to resources for indigenous peoples and local communities, women and youth

We also repeatedly emphasized that women make an active, substantive and significant contribution to the Framework’s goals and 23 targets. That contribution must be acknowledged, made visible, reported on and integrated into global progress.

These messages are echoed in the Co-Chairs’ summary of the Dialogue (CBD/IMP/OM/2026/1/8). The summary calls for indigenous peoples and local communities, women and youth to have access to financial resources and capacity-building, so that they can engage effectively in implementation. It calls for stronger engagement of rights holders and stakeholders through the co-design and co-production of biodiversity actions, not just participation in planning and reporting. It also highlights the need to bring together diverse data and knowledge, including qualitative and quantitative data, traditional knowledge, and data from indigenous peoples and local communities, women, and youth.

Ms. Tiffany Straza, International Policy and Conventions Lead at UNEP-WCMC, introduced the panel and framed the moment. She highlighted the strong political mandate for gender-responsive KM-GBF implementation and the particular relevance of the TSC Mechanism as a vehicle for cooperation — not just with countries, but between TSC centres themselves and with the Global Coordination Entity. She acknowledged the difficult context in which the work is taking place — where organisations are being asked to do more with less — and noted that a whole-of-society approach and genuine cooperation are among the most effective responses. She reminded participants that the Mentimeter was available for those in the room and online to share their perspectives throughout the session.

In a video message from Guatemala, Ms. Marina Lopez Sincal, the country’s Gender Focal Point, shared her government’s vision for a national biodiversity and gender information system capable of disaggregating data by sex, age, linguistic community, and people of origin. She described the core challenge as one of interoperability: without a coordinated system bringing environmental institutions together, efforts risk duplication, mechanisms remain isolated, and the evidence needed to demonstrate women’s, Indigenous Peoples’, and local communities’ contributions to conservation never fully materializes.

Ms. Marina was clear that this is not a peripheral initiative for Guatemala, but a strategic and foundational commitment one meant to ensure that decision-making no longer leaves behind the very people most engaged in biodiversity management. She closed with a call for stronger inter-institutional articulation, so that national systems genuinely reflect the collective vision the KM-GBF sets out.

One of the meeting’s strongest outcomes was a shared recognition that biodiversity governance cannot be separated from broader questions of justice, equity and systemic transformation. Participants reaffirmed the need for coordinated advocacy that addresses the structural drivers of biodiversity loss while promoting rights-based and community-led approaches to conservation.

Discussions also laid the groundwork for stronger collaboration among civil society organisations ahead of COP17, including joint messaging on key policy issues, movement-building beyond CBD spaces, and continued engagement around an emerging ecological justice agenda. 

For the CBD Women’s Caucus, participation in the meeting reinforced the importance of ensuring that feminist perspectives remain embedded within broader biodiversity debates. As preparations continue towards COP17, the Caucus remains committed to working alongside allies to advance biodiversity governance that is equitable, rights-based and centred on the knowledge, leadership and lived experiences of women, Indigenous Peoples and local communities.