Following close collaboration between the CBD technical team and platform developers, data from CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature will begin automatically feeding into the CBD clearing house system from 30 November 2025, under Decision 16/32 (Annex 2).
Once cities and regions submit or update their commitments and actions on either platform, this information will flow directly into their respective national dashboards within the CBD system. National governments will then have four weeks to review and either accept or decline the information as part of their country’s official progress toward implementing the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). If no response is received within this period, the submission will be automatically accepted. For U.S. cities and regions, data will be accepted automatically, as no national review process applies.
This represents a significant advancement for subnational and local biodiversity reporting. CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature remain the only non-state actor platforms with a formalized process for transmitting local and regional data directly into the CBD system. According to the CBD Secretariat, this is the only recognized pathway for subnational and local governments to contribute information towards the Global Biodiversity Stocktake.
Cities and regions are encouraged to continue using the CitiesWithNature and RegionsWithNature platforms to record and update their commitments and progress, ensuring that their contributions are captured and reflected in global biodiversity assessments.
As preparations advance for CBD COP17 in Yerevan, Armenia in 2026, this milestone underscores the growing recognition of cities and regions as essential actors in achieving the global biodiversity goals set out under the KMGBF.
