DEFRA confirms 30×30 criteria and next steps in England

On

In December 2022, at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Kunming-Montreal, the UK signed up to the newly agreed-upon international Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). All signatories to the Global Biodiversity Framework pledge to halt the biodiversity crisis and restore nature. A key target within the Global Biodiversity Framework is the agreement from countries to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (30×30).

In an important step towards beginning to deliver 30×30 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has confirmed the three criteria that will be used to ensure a consistent standard for land to contribute towards 30×30. All areas that will be used to count towards 30×30 must meet each of these criteria, regardless of the land being inside or outside of an existing Protected Area.

The three criteria that land must meet before contributing to 30×30 in England are:

  1. Purpose
    • Will the purposes or management objectives for this area ensure the delivery of in-situ conservation outcomes?
  2. Protection
    • Is the conservation of this area secured for at least 20 years, through legal or other effective means?
  3. Management
    • Does the area’s governance or ownership have the ability to implement reasonable management actions to achieve in-situ conservation outcomes?
    • Is there a management plan or similar that is designed to deliver in-situ conservation outcomes?
    • Are management measures being implemented, with appropriate monitoring, evaluation and learning in place to assess progress and inform future management?
    • Is the area achieving, or making progress towards, in-situ conservation outcomes, with reasonable confidence that these outcomes will be achieved?

DEFRA is currently developing additional guidance for how each of these criteria can be met, along with mechanisms for assessing and reporting additional land towards the 30×30 target. It is important to note that although many areas of land within Protected Areas e.g. National Parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Ramsar sites might be delivering on the first criteria, and providing in-situ conservation outcomes, they will only be counted towards 30×30 when they meet both the protection and management criteria. Additionally, DEFRA has confirmed that they are currently developing a mechanism to formally recognise the internationally defined Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) in England, which will enable those areas not within a designated Protected Area to be counted as an OECM and contribute towards 30×30 targets.

30×30 is an essential part of delivering nature recovery, and DEFRA has pledged to release an ambitious delivery strategy confirming key levers that will be used to achieve this goal in 2025. In the more immediate future, DEFRA plans to begin working on establishing the 30×30 assessment and reporting process, which will allow landowners or land managers to self-assess land for 30×30 as well as for DEFRA to carry out internal assessments to identify potential areas for 30×30.

You can read more about the three criteria and the next steps for DEFRA here.