Translating Global Biodiversity Goals into Local Practice

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework sets out 23 targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. Together, these targets describe a broad transformation of how societies interact with nature—spanning spatial planning, restoration, sustainable use, governance, and public engagement. They are structured around reducing pressures on biodiversity, supporting sustainable use, and strengthening the conditions for implementation

Taken together, they describe a systemic transformation. But they do not prescribe how this transformation should unfold in a municipal setting.

While the targets are global, their implementation is inherently local. They take shape in planning decisions, in the management of public land, in how infrastructure is developed, and in how municipalities engage with citizens and stakeholders. In this sense, municipalities are not only implementers of policy - they are key drivers of change.

At the same time, many municipalities are already working actively with biodiversity. The challenge is rarely a lack of willingness. Rather, it is the absence of clear structures that support action across departments and tasks.

Biodiversity cuts across planning, operations, environment, and community engagement. As a result, it often becomes “everyone’s responsibility”—and therefore risks becoming no one’s concrete task.

Translating global goals into local practice is therefore not just about understanding the targets. It is about making them actionable in municipal work - linking to everyday decisions and clarifying roles and responsibilities

What does this mean for us? Where does it belong? And how do we begin?

The ambition of the Nordic Nature Network is to address these questions by translating the global framework to a municipal context and develop an indicator framework that connects global biodiversity targets to concrete and relevant local action.

The translation is structured around a set of municipal Action Domains. The domains reflect how municipalities already organize their work and make it easier to integrate biodiversity into planning, daily operations, and collaboration across departments.

At the same time, the global framework includes a range of indicators - but they are not directly usable at the municipal level. To make this more operational, the network develops a more actionable indicator framework. The framework works with four types of indicators that provide a clearer and more practical structure.

Together, the Action Domains and indicator categories create a link between action and evidence:

• The Action Domains define where municipalities act
• The indicator categories define what to follow and measure

This makes it possible to track whether:

• ecological conditions are improving
• pressures on biodiversity are being reduced
• concrete actions are being implemented
• biodiversity is becoming embedded in governance and decision-making

The aim is not to measure everything, but to focus on what supports better decisions and stronger implementation. Ultimately, the question is not whether municipalities are willing to act. It is whether the conditions for action are in place.