Launching the IPBES Spatial Planning and Connectivity Assessment: Reflections from the First Authors’ Meeting

The intensive and productive week-long first authors’ meeting for the IPBES Spatial Planning and Connectivity Assessment took place at IIASA in Laxenburg from 22–26 September 2025. The meeting brought together more than 100 experts to launch this fast-track methodological assessment, co-chaired by Peter Verburg, Maria Jose Martinez Harms, and Luis Inostroza.

This assessment focuses on integrated biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning and ecological connectivity across land, freshwater, and marine systems. Its core aim is to review and synthesize knowledge, methods, and tools that can support planning decisions which prevent land- and sea-use change harmful to biodiversity. The work contributes directly to the implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), highlighting the role of spatial planning in conservation, restoration, sustainable use, and long-term transformative change.

Why is this assessment so essential?

This assessment is particularly important because land-use change remains the leading direct driver of biodiversity loss on land and in freshwater, while sea-use change is a major driver in marine systems. Over the next two years, experts will examine ways to integrate biodiversity considerations into planning processes, strengthen ecological connectivity (including for migratory species), and reduce trade-offs among different land and ocean uses. The assessment will provide guidance on approaches, models, data, scenarios, and capacity-building to help decision-makers support synergies between biodiversity, climate, food systems, health, and poverty reduction goals.

My engagement in the assessment

I am pleased to be part of this work, specifically as a fellow author to Chapter 2, which focuses on implementing Target 1 of the KMGBF: biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning. Target 1 provides essential spatial scope for coordinated global biodiversity action. This chapter emphasizes the importance of proactively considering biodiversity in all planning contexts—including urban environments—and not only within protected or restored areas. It also promotes both structural and functional connectivity across scales and sectors. Our aim is to help develop approaches for managing land and sea-use change effectively, reducing the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance to near zero, while supporting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities and contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Next steps

We now continue working within our chapter teams to further develop the initial ideas and begin compiling global evidence. This also involves coordination across chapters, as the assessment is inherently interconnected and draws on shared bodies of knowledge. A first unpolished draft of the chapters—and of the overall assessment—is scheduled for completion by 8 March, with a refined first draft to be finalized by 1 May, before moving into the next stages.