Sustainable Development Goals

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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, agreed by 193 Member States of the United Nations, sets out an ambitious set of 17 goals and 169 targets - embodying three basic principles of indivisibility, inclusion and acceleration to achieve social, economic, and environmental progress. Because the 2030 Agenda is consistent with the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, the implementation of one contributes to the achievement of the other.

Actions to conserve, sustainably manage and equitably share benefits of ecosystems directly contribute to human well-being and development priorities, including by reducing poverty, promoting food security, ensuring health, ensuring water security, securing renewable energy, sustaining livelihoods and jobs, proving resilient green infrastructure, promoting climate change mitigation and adaptation, conserving oceans, and conserving biodiversity.

The 2030 Agenda seeks to benefit all people, and commits to leaving no one behind. To deliver the ambitious 2030 Agenda, countries must ensure that NBSAP actions are linked to national development planning, and to locally grounded action. Local communities, which are disproportionately responsible for maintaining the world's biodiversity while becoming more vulnerable to the impacts of over-consumption, biodiversity loss and climate change, can play a key role in implementing NBSAP actions.

The impact of NBSAPs extends far beyond Goal 14 (Life below Water) and Goal 15 (Life on Land); each NBSAP action is capable of contributing to multiple development goals. NBSAPs adopted as policy instruments can provide a ready pathway to accelerate implementation of SDGs.

Main Resources

• Local Action for the Global Goals: Promoting Innovative Conservation and Development Solutions
• Technical Note on Biodiversity and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• Policy Brief on Biodiversity and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans: Natural Catalysts for Accelerating Action on Sustainable Development Goals
• Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform
• The 2030 Agenda and Ecosystems: A discussion paper on the links between the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals