Biodiversity is the living fabric of our planet. It underpins human wellbeing in the present and in the future, and its rapid decline threatens nature and people alike. It is vital to transform people’s roles, actions and relationships with biodiversity, to halt and reverse its decline.

UNESCO supports biodiversity

UNESCO's transformative action

is based on three pillars:

Restoring

the relationship between humans and nature

Conserving

the harmony of our ecosystems

Amplifying

the power of youth

Highlights

UNESCO Earth Network

Connecting sites with scientists to boost biodiversity

Amazon Biosphere Reserves Project

Improving resilience and halting biodiversity loss in the Greater Amazon Basin

Environmental DNA Expeditions in UNESCO World Heritage Marine Sites

Measuring marine biodiversity, and the impacts of climate change

Ocean Biodiversity Information System

The world's largest marine biodiversity database, making science available for sustainable ocean management.

UNESCO welcomes new global biodiversity agreement

The 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) adopted a landmark roadmap to 2030 which includes area-based targets such as designating 30% of the Earth’s land surface a protected area and restoring 30% if the planet’s degraded terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine ecosystems by 2030. UNESCO will be contributing to implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, as the agreement is known, through its own networks of designated areas.

Protecting Biodiversity calls for #SharingHumanity. 

Publications

UNESCO’s actions for biodiversity: making peace with nature
2022
UNESCO
0000383600
World Heritage biodiversity: a unique contribution to life
UNESCO
IUCN
2023
Explore the visual guide to our planet’s biodiversity hotspots.

Join us on this journey to understand and appreciate the invaluable significance of UNESCO World Heritage sites.
0000385392
Restoring biodiversity, reviving life
UNESCO
juillet - septembre 2021
UNESCO
0000377986