Healthy rivers, lakes and wetlands sustain biodiversity and contribute to water security and climate resilience. Their protection and restoration can connect implementation across the Rio Conventions on biodiversity, climate change and desertification. Coordinating national priorities can help identify shared investment needs while respecting each convention’s mandate and reporting requirements.
The Freshwater Challenge supports country-led restoration and conservation through existing national plans. Its ambition is to bring 300,000 km of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands under restoration by 2030, alongside conserving important freshwater ecosystems. It supports delivery of existing commitments without requiring new commitments outside established multilateral processes or additional reporting.
Practical connections include freshwater restoration under CBD Global Biodiversity Framework Target 2, national land degradation neutrality targets, and the water and ecosystem dimensions of the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience. The event will draw on resource-mobilisation discussions at UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia and CBD COP17 in Armenia, bringing lessons on country priorities and implementation support into the climate discussion.
Objectives
- Show how freshwater ecosystem priorities can connect national biodiversity, land and climate plans, using documented country examples.
- Identify the financing, technical and coordination needs that countries face in translating these commitments into implementation.
- Identify practical opportunities for countries and partners to work together, with messages relevant to climate adaptation and Rio synergies discussions at COP31.
