Over the next two years, governments will be reviewing implementation of the current Strategic Plan and considering the elements of a post-2020 global biodiversity framework to meet the Convention’s 2050 Vision.

As part of the process for the preparation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, and in support of IUCN Resolution WCC-2016-Res-096-EN on ‘Safeguarding space for nature and securing our future: developing a post-2020 strategy’, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and National Geographic Society (NGS), in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), BirdLife International, UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), hosted a two day public symposium from 27 to 28 February 2018 in London, UK.

The Symposium brought together 250 participants from 22 different countries, including the Executive Secretary and senior staff from the CBD Secretariat, scientists, conservation practitioners, policy -makers, business leaders, civil society and donors. The key objectives of the meeting were to: (i) review the science informing future area-based conservation targets; (ii) evaluate the implications of various policy options for delivering area-based conservation; (iii) provide balanced, evidence-based recommendations to Parties to the CBD and other intergovernmental policy processes; and (iv) raise awareness of the need for a more ambitious, holistic and effective strategy to safeguard space for nature, incorporating protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures.

This information document includes a summary of the key messages that resulted from the Symposium and the papers presented (see Annex 1), for consideration by Parties to the CBD as well as by partner organisations.