Speaking at the Forum, IUCN Director General, Dr Bruno Oberle said: "If we are going to create nature-positive economies and societies, we have to be able to measure the contributions of the actions of the conservation community and broader society towards these global goals. This Platform is a highly important political tool."

The Platform’s development was mandated by IUCN Members, and so far more than 4,000 contributions with the potential to achieve 16% of global biodiversity goals have been documented by IUCN constituents. In time, as other IUCN Members and Commissions use the tool, it is hoped to quantify the entire collective contribution of the Union.

Chris Mahon, Chair of the IUCN Global Group of National and Regional Committees said: "The Platform is a way for Members to contribute their voices for nature through their conservation actions and aspirations on the ground, and provides a mechanism to see what others are doing and make connections."

The process is simple: organisations enter data about their conservation and restoration work, which is then validated by IUCN. This information is cross-referenced with IUCN’s established metrics to calculate the proportion of global goals which could be delivered by conservation in a given place.

David Gadsden, Director of Conservation Solutions at Esri, commented: "What the Contributions for Nature Platform represents is a type of accounting system. Esri is contributing because in many ways this reflects what our organisation was initially founded to accomplish, which is to advance geographic understanding."

For biodiversity, the Platform applies the STAR (Species Threat Abatement and Restoration) metric which is based on data from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species^TM. The Platform also uses the Restoration Barometer to document the potential of Nature-based Solutions to mitigate climate change. Data entry is supported by the World Database on Protected Areas and the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas.

Addressing the Forum, Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary of the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity said: "Credit to IUCN, as we see the pieces joining to feed into reporting contributions on implementation of the global biodiversity framework by different stakeholders. Together, we will be able to monitor progress, so that we are able to take stock and adjust as we go."

In this initial phase, only IUCN constituents can enter contributions but anyone can explore the Platform and the data there. IUCN Members already using the Platform include NGOs BirdLife International and WWF; Indigenous Peoples Organisations Asociación SOTZ`IL and Agencia; and the governments of Costa Rica, Guatemala and Republic of Korea.

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