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The 28th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice concluded on 1 August 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya.
SBSTTA is the scientific advisory body established under Article 25 of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
It brings together government experts and technical negotiators to assess biodiversity status and frame recommendations for the Conference of the Parties.
The meeting was organised by the CBD Secretariat in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme.
Its purpose is to guide implementation of the 23 targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework by 2030.
Multilateral environmental treaties separate the political function from the scientific one. The Conference of the Parties is the decision-making organ where governments negotiate and adopt decisions; a subsidiary body prepares the technical ground on which those decisions rest. SBSTTA, created by Article 25 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, assesses the status of biodiversity, reviews how well conservation measures are working, and drafts recommendations that the COP may adopt, amend or reject. It cannot itself bind any country. The division of labour matters because it forces disagreements to surface in two different registers: what the evidence shows, argued among experts at SBSTTA, and what governments are willing to commit to, argued at the COP. The climate regime has the same structure in its SBSTA and SBI bodies.
Simple Analogy: SBSTTA drafts the technical report; the COP decides what, if anything, to do about it.
GS Paper III > Conservation, environmental agreements and international conventions
General Awareness > Environment and international organisations
Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, established under Article 25 of the CBD.
The 1992 Rio treaty on conservation, sustainable use and benefit sharing of biological resources.
The framework adopted at COP15 in 2022 setting 23 targets for 2030, successor to the Aichi Targets.
The decision-making body of a convention, composed of all member states.
United Nations Environment Programme, headquartered at Nairobi, which collaborated in organising the meeting.